This is another one of those paradoxes in life. Imagine a time when you were younger, poorer, or less evolved. It could be when you were in college or when you just landed your first job. You may have thought that your life was complex, but was it really? I know you had to study and write a paper and squeeze in that pickup basketball game with your buddies with enough time to spare to shower before dinner and beers. Years later we call it “the good old days.”
Flash forward a bunch of years (or a few decades) and now you may have busy jobs, managing lots of people, kids, spouses, projects, deadlines, and a lot of responsibility riding on your shoulders. How complex do those college years or your 20’s look now?
There is one thing that I’ve noticed about a lot of wealth builders who are struggling more than they need to be. I’d explain it this way;
“The problem with wealth building is that as time progresses (and as you progress) you have more and more resources to complicate your life with non-essential items.”
Think about your life for a moment. You are climbing up the proverbial wealth food chain. You have more financial resources at your disposal (perhaps a lot more capacity for debt as well which is wiggled in front of your eyes by lending institutions). It’s very common to start thinking, acting, behaving in ways that lead to;
- Bigger homes
- Additional cars
- More gadgets
- More services to help you manage your things (landscapers, house cleaners, cooks, pool cleaning companies, auto detailers)
- Business properties
- Stock portfolios
- Venture capital pursuits
- Board of director commitments
- Not for Profit activities
- Kids activities spread out all over the place
- Expensive hobbies
- Second homes (or third homes)
- Higher maintenance toys like boats
It takes a very special person to continuously “weed the garden” and keep eliminating the non-essential in our lives. Goodies are fun. Goodies are nice. But goodies can often bring us big headaches and become vast black holes of time and money. Money and time go in but nothing ever comes out.
If you are waking up each day feeling like you are struggling to get to the top of the mountain, and at times about to fall off, then take a complexity inventory of your life. Compare your life today versus your life a few years back when it was far less complicated. What can be eliminated without really giving up the joy in your life? What have you acquired that keeps draining time and money? What is essential and what isn’t essential in your life?
Wealth is supposed to make our lives better because we end up with more control over things (mainly time but also our options). If you are increasing your wealth but losing a grip on your time, take note now. Don’t wait any longer. Grab the tiger by the tail and get the tiger back in the cage (or set him free back in nature where he belongs). We are not working so hard to complicate our lives. We are supposed to be working hard to simplify our lives. Don’t get these confused on your journey. It often seems that many of you are getting distracted rather easily.