Do You Work to Consume, or to Create?

You feel lucky because you can work, and therefore have an income that allows you to fulfill your most urgent needs. When the end of the month comes, however, you receive your salary, and the bills fly out of your hands as if they were blown away by the wind. You start to question what you’re doing, and if you’re really satisfied.

There’s no need to put shackles on your legs. Every month, you can be a slave who works just for money to consume and not to create. But it’s terrible when you discover that, despite working for money, you’ll never have it. Money is an illusion that evaporates almost as soon as it arrives.

The situation starts to become concerning. Every fifteen or thirty days (depending on your contract) are repeated in a vicious cycle: you work, receive your paycheck, pay what you owe, and go back to zero. Meanwhile, you start to feel frustrated, anxious, and finally, your self-esteem also starts to pay the price.

Upon first look, it seems like you have no alternative. But at the same time, a question arises: are you living, or are you surviving with what you have? You have the answer, but the problem is that you can’t visualize it because you’re a prisoner of your daily concerns. The key is to change your mentality.

Is work a necessary evil?

You have to live off of something; this is a truth that can’t be argued. So now the question is, is it possible to love your work? The answer is yes, even if it isn’t what you dreamed of, even if you feel stagnant at the moment. If you’re aware that you’re not going to stay there your whole life and that it will be a good experience, you’ll surely be able to do it without feeling guilty.

It’s important that your new mentality is one of opening your horizons. To do so, it’s necessary to study what you like, figure out a job that you would enjoy, develop an art you feel identified with, or in any case, acquire the tools so that your job isn’t just a means to get money, but also allows you to grow and develop your potential.

If you work for someone in particular or for a business and you feel like you receive more than just a paycheck at the end of the month from your job, you’re in the right place. If, on the other hand, you feel like it’s time to follow your own path, it’s time to leave that job and use the tools that you’ve developed to start to work on your own. The most worthwhile goals aren’t a walk in the park, but it’s important that you at least try.

That way, you’ll have more opportunities and you won’t feel tied to a chair that gives you temporary security. Also, you can make your job a place where you get to know yourself and feel self-actualized. You’ll also be able to leave the cycle of working to consume, and enter into one of working to create. Always remember that things start to flow when you change your mentality. 

Building your life project

Have you asked yourself what you want to do with your life? This should lead to motivation to build a plan for the future. The first thing you have to do is see what tools you have. This means learning what you can develop, how much you’re prepared to learn, and how you’ll face the challenges of a society that demands competition.

You also have to establish your priorities. To do so, think of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Maslow was an American psychologist who used the image of a pyramid to classify human needs. On the bottom of  this pyramid, he placed “basic or physiological needs” (respiration, eating, hydration, sex, sleep).

On the next level, he put “safety needs” (housing, education, transportation, social security, protection of property).  On the third level are “social needs” (friendship, family, participation, acceptance).

The fourth level represents “esteem” (the higher version of esteem has to do with respect for oneself and the lower version of esteem is related to needing the respect of other people). And on the top of the pyramid is the “need for self-actualization,” or reaching your maximum potential.

You can use this model for classification or make your own, which would be better since it can be adapted to your own specifications. However you do it, making the order of your priorities clear will effectively shorten any path, and and therefore must be a part of the foundation of any life project.