6 reasons why dream-chasing unlocks more joy than money ever could.
I’m sure you have had at least one time in your life where you’ve become focused entirely on money.Money can help you gain your time back, which has value,but there is nothing that beats the fulfillment you get fromachieving your dream.
In my life, there has been poverty, plenty of money, then poverty again.The contrast between rich and poor is humbling and has led menotto want to chase money.
Making your dream come true will take you to new heights andshow you a side of lifethat you may not have known existed.If your life feels meaningless, or you feel stuck, or you have no idea what’s next, or you are just existing, your beliefs about money are part of the problem.
Maybe everyone around you seems as though they are winning. Social media tells you that everyone is having a great time, and you need to up your game. The photos you view online are blurring the reality of life. These photos, accidentally, tell you that money helps make everything better.“Money is what you have been missing,” they say.I’m here to say that is wrong.
What is missing is chasing a dream.
The defining factor that has led me to write this article is that I recently published an article about making $11,000 in 30 days.The money was not the point of me sharing this; it’s the achievement of a dream I have had for the last five years. The focus should be the joy from that.
Here is why you must stop chasing money and chase a dream instead:
1.Money Is theByproductof Achieving Your Dream
It’s two for the price of one.Focusing on chasing a dream allows you to give the goal everything you’ve got.Your energy, heart, and focus will be in the right place.When you achieve your dream on a big enough scale, you create value.
Value earned from chasing your dream converts into money.If you chase the dream, you will get the money, but like me, you’ll realize that it’s the least important part of the whole process.
Thinking about money and having it be the goal only blocks it from entering your life.Think about how you can make your dream come true instead to unlock meaning in your life that will drive you much further than solely focusing on earning money.
- Adopt the beliefs you need to support your dream.
- Acquire the skills needed to achieve your dream.
- Work on your mind and psychology every day.
- Start somewhere, anywhere.
The dream and the process to achieve it hold the value, not the goal of money.
2.Money Can Be Taken Away in a Heartbeat
Just read the article on my friend who was worth more than $100M and lost the whole lot because of a minor lawsuit that should never have taken his fortune away and did.
You could get sued.
You could get divorced.
You could be scammed.
You could be robbed.
There are so many ways for you to lose money, whereas chasing your dream has none of these downsides.
Even if your dream gets ripped to pieces, you can always use the mindset and skills you learned from the process to start again and accelerate your way back to where you previously were.
No one can rob you of who you become from chasing your dream, but you can absolutely be robbed of your money without even knowing how.
3.Dreams Feel Better Once Acquired Than Money Does
I am proud to have become the writer that I never thought I could be.
Five years on, it is the best feeling in my life right now.Knowing that I put in the work, overcame the obstacles, learned the skills and reached my target fuels me to keep chasing my dream and go even bigger.
Once you reach your dream, the best part is you can go bigger and help more people.Money, on the other hand, doesn’t hold the same power. You can never have enough money or zeroes on your internet banking app.
There is always more money to acquire, and you’ll probably never be the richest person in the world. If you do become the Jeff Bezos of your neighborhood, you will be knocked off sooner or later—or when you die.
Have you ever met someone who just made a bucketload of money? Well, I have.I have met many successful entrepreneurs who have sold their companies and made more money than they could ever spend.
You know what these people end up doing the following week after cashing their big cheque?They almost always go and create something else. They might celebrate for a few days, but what they don’t do is sit on the beach for the rest of their life.See, when I talk to these entrepreneurs, what they tell me isthat chasing their dream and getting it was much more powerful than the money.
What they realize is that it’s the people they help and the meaning their dream gives their life that really counts, not the money.The money only allows them to go off and chase another dream or abigger dream with a slight advantage in not having to work a normal job.
Let money highlight how much value you have created and the people you’ve helped rather than be a measurement of success.
4.Unforgettable Experiences Can’t Be Bought
You can’t buy a perfect experience because the best experiences are unexpected.
One of my favorite experiences was celebrating the end of a career with my team on a friend’s farm. The experience cost me less than thirty dollars (might have actually been free), and still to this day I cherish it. What made it special was that it was the last time all of us would ever be together again as a group.
On that day, I didn’t realize this because I just assumed we’d always do it again.In the months that followed, all the members of the group went their separate ways in life.
You can go out tomorrow and buy yourself a dream holiday, and what you’ll realize in the aftermath is that it’s the people you’re with who matter.
The same thought hit me in my career. I thought it was an industry, or a job title, or a company I started that would make all the difference.Now it has come to my attention that what I chase in my career and my version of a dream are people who are phenomenal to work with.
5.When One Area of Your Life Experiences Growth, Another Area Dies or Becomes Stale
Money is only one small part of your life.
Thedelusionis that when you have lots of money, it takes all the areas of your life up with it.It doesn’t.
Making lots of money takes time and focus away from the other areas of your life, and those areas suffer because of it.I could walk into a senior management position tomorrow in my career and then simultaneously destroy my dream of writing.
You too could quit your job and start a business, but then maybe your family would suffer or your partner would see you less.Your business could make lots of money and destroy you inside because your dream of being an artist may be lost in the process.
Look at those people you admire who are millionaires. Look at them very closely. I have done this over the years when meeting various successful people at events.
When I spent the time asking deeper questions and going beyond their mediocre dream of being financially wealthy, what I saw was the following: someone who was divorced, or lonely, or unhappy, or who hadn’t seen their kids, or who was tired of the travel, or whose health was ruined from drugs and celebrating, or who was completely burned out.
Dreams share this same reality.When you chase your dream, something else may have to take a backseat.
The question then becomes,What are you willing to give up for your dream?
To chase my dream of writing, I have had to give up making more money in my career and significant amounts of time to do the writing itself.My dream doesn’t come without sacrificeand neither does yours.
6.The Truth Is No One Cares How Much Money You Make
We’ve all been to one of those events where the guest speaker comes out, and the amount of money they have made is rattled off the tongue of the person introducing them as though we all should bow down and throw confetti at them or maybe smash a few plates like we’re at a Greek wedding.
Here’s the thing: I couldn’t give a damn how much money you make, and 98.9% of people will have the same reaction.The few who care about how much money you made only care because they believe it will help them to make money too.You don’t want those people in your life (aka. leeches).
When Elon Musk walks into a packed hall full of people, they are not standing up and cheering because he sold his company, PayPal, for lots of money —they are standing up and celebrating him because ofwhat he stands for, what he believes, and the impossible dreams he has made a reality in his life.
Elon shows us what can happen when we chase the dream and not the money.Your social status and length of applause is the result of chasing yourdream.The question is, as you chase your dream, how are you going to go to even higher levels and bring people along on the journey with you?
Walk into a theatre on Sunday night, and when everything is quiet and you can’t even hear a pin drop, shout out at the top of your voice that you made five million dollars. Go on, I dare you.
Everyone in the theatre will tell you to shut up and sit down.Then, as a comparison, give a speech in front of your colleagues about how you achieved the impossible and made your dream come true.Watch them be inspired and give you a round of applause.
This is the stark contrast between chasing your dream and chasing money.
