“A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart.” Jonathan Swift
When we look at the overall life of people; the modern day man is born, raised in the family, studies in schools that are suitable for the family’s opportunities and also suitable for his own success. If he is very lucky, he enters into a good department at a university and after, his graduation, he gets into business and the cogwheels of his life gear come to an end with retirement. The life of the working people is more or less like this. Birth, education (if he is lucky enough), work, retirement, and death. It is undeniable that life has a routine and of course, I’m not going to criticize this. What I want to focus on is to think whether the content of this model is flexible enough to adapt ourselves. I have to add, in every society, there are millions of people that are trying to live under the hunger limit, and the life suggestions I will share in this article will not be enough for them. They have to try harder to break out of their predicament and break their chains. If the path they have chosen so far does not improve their lives, they should change their paths and look for other ways. What I see as the interlocutor of this article is the 50-60% portion of the society with medium economic conditions.
Life in some cities is very fast. Cities like Tokyo, Istanbul, New York, London. These very crowded cities have a structure that consumes life in an instant. Work hard, live a little. In a routine, people swinging from place to place. So what exactly is it for? Many people give similar answers to this question; “For a good life”, “To leave a good future for my children”, “To be comfortable in my old age”. Yes, most of us work hard for this, we persevere and we sacrifice our precious lives. Naturally, our last frames also similar; life comes to an end until the blink of an eye, and at the last moment of life query of ourselves begin. What was the things we didn’t do, we could have done?! And after that query, most of us are extremely upset about the issues we have sacrificed.
Maybe we can mislead ourselves on some issues. One of these is the subject of MONEY. We sell our time for the sake of making more money. As if we have more than 100 years in front of us, we sacrifice the present time, and some of us even accepting a life contains just breathing. The issue that needs to be emphasized in this respect is for me our sense of necessity. Everybody wants to have nice things. This idea becomes today’s’ normal. It does not come to the minds that what we call beautiful things may be illusoriness of the world outside us! Most of the time, we perceive what is expensive is good. Can you prove to me that a man with a Porsche is a better person than a man without a car? On the contrary, a nice sports car and a strong man image are perceived together today. These perceptions have made people enthusiastic to sell their own time, body and even their souls for the objects that they believe that are fancy. Interestingly, most of us do it unconsciously, without any planning. Life is flowing, a way of life is drawn for us with warnings and directions, and we often run in that direction without paying attention. Are all these sacrifices really necessary or obligatory for achieving happiness?
You can ask that “Who wouldn’t want a nice sports car in front of a huge villa?” or you can say, he writes these but he could also not say “no” to these kinds of stuff and maybe you could be right about this. Actually, these dreams are not something that cannot be reached. What I want to emphasize is that you must be aware of what you are willing to sacrifice, and also happiness may not come with you when you reach these dreams. There was a wrong perception especially in western societies that we need to have too much of everything, especially the best things for happiness. But happiness is not such a thing. Everyone may want to have good things, but in order to have beautiful things, it is not worth selling the present time, yourself or your soul. It is not worth it if you are giving up many things that will bring you happiness, such as living priceless moments with your loved ones, doing a favorite job or taking time for hobbies. Because the only thing that can’t be brought back is time.