In the end, people will judge you anyway, so in the end, don’t live your life impressing others, live your life impressing yourself.
Who exactly are you living your life for?
Does it truly matter whether your car is so much nicer and more expensive than someone else’s? Do you have to live in a home that is bigger than everyone else? What are the metrics by which you make the critical decisions in your life? Are those decisions based on what others might perceive about you from the outside looking in? Or are you making your core decisions based upon values, morals, scruples and living by your own code of ethics?
No matter how rich you are, how many trinkets you have accrued, awards you have won, lovers you have had relationships with, and homes you have purchased, in the end, we all fit into basically the same sized box or we are cremated. Is there value in trying to be most aggressive in acquiring the trappings of wealth?
From my personal experiences going from many trappings to very few, I can share that most of the best years of my life to date have been spent without the trappings. They were spent in the years finding ways to get where I wanted to be. Seeking wisdom from those who surround me and learning from everyone and everything that would enable me to learn.
The wealth in life is nonmaterial. Integrity, knowledge, humor, tact, diplomacy, charisma, warmth, compassion, tenderness, understanding, determination, courage and so many other values are the real wealth. Given that none of them require monetary consideration, they are free for the taking. Leveraging these in your life will give you huge value, far beyond a brand purse, name car or mansion in the hills.
So rather than keeping up with the Jones or hoping to impress someone with an outfit, possession or career position, consider that perhaps your time might be much better spent working on trying to impress yourself with a new step forward on something that has been a challenge for you.
I took such a step in the last 48 hours. We are exploring a big move with Sizzle in the crypto space. I have been advised that raising money for our venture through a crypto IDO (Initial DEX Offering) was a smart move. But I knew nothing about it. I have found that if I really want to learn something, I need to write a paper on it. Otherwise, if it is a topic that is not of interest, my mind wanders and I have to reread it 3x. By the time I got through reading and investigating, I became fluent in something that previously did not hold my attention, but now I am fascinated by it and how it is all working.
No one will be impressed by my having done this. But I am. I took something so totally boring to me and forced my mind to absorb it to the point that it ceased to be boring and eventually became fascinating. This is clearly the wave of the future, and it would have been far more simple for me to stay in my comfort zone and ignore it.
My point is that by the end I had only impressed myself that with discipline, I could wade through topics that made my eyes swim and emerge coherent on the topic after the work was put in. If this becomes the key to making my giant Sizzle dream come to fruition, wonderful. If not, I am that much more informed.
As it applies to my thoughts this morning….I love to discover that taking on things I hate, are accomplished easily with a turn of personality from annoyed, to curious. I would encourage you to evaluate how you feel about others judging you and work instead to letting them think whatever they want to think. Far more important is what you think about yourself and how well you are feeling about what you are setting your mind and your life to become. If you use values and intelligence and morals and ethics and good health and exercise as your yardsticks, you will become far more valuable than anyone with a mansion, fancy car and expensive hand bag.
Just my opinion.
Happy Thursday!
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