Are You Doing It For The Money?

Are You Doing It For The Money?

Today the subject of money was on my mind, and I found me asking myself this question; are you doing it for the money?

I was in the kitchen making a coffee, and the question popped into my head.

My answer was instant, almost like both the question and answer came at the same time. And to be honest, I was a little surprised.

My answer was, no.

Categorical. No ifs or buts about it.

I like money, who doesn't. I love what I can do with it, the stuff I can buy if I happen to be in the buying mood. Which, I should say I rarely am.

Most of the things I buy are related to my online activities. I buy stuff because I think it might help me make a better thing.

I'll rarely buy stuff on a whim, solely for the sake of it.

I tend to be measured in my spending of money. Not mean, just selective.

Buying stuff doesn't float my boat. I don't need to go shopping to feel good as is the case for many of us.

Money Doesn't Excite Me

Money doesn't get my juices going. I'm sorry, I just don't get turned on by money.

I'm not sorry actually.

Turn of phrase there.

There have been times when I was in possession of more cash than I knew what to do with and I felt the same as I do now.

I would say now though; I feel more tuned into myself than I was then. A bit sharper and perhaps a bit cleverer.

To admit that money doesn't excite me and to say that out loud is a kind of a revelation to me because we're not supposed to say that.

We're all supposed to pursue it, right?

I mean that's the meaning fo life, isn't it?

We spend all this time growing up into adults, going to school, learning the ropes, getting degrees just to get jobs and spend our time working for money.

That's the unwritten narrative for life in the modern western industrialised world.

Now, I'm not out to bash money, that would be silly. Money is not inherently bad or good. Rather it becomes what it does by virtue of how it is used.

It is what you and I do with it that matters.

Money For Art

So now, I've said it. Money doesn't excite me. I don't do what I do for money.

OK, some of what I do I do for money.

The day job fills my pockets with dollars so I can buy this can of Smithwicks sitting on the desk beside me.

I like that. I love that the technical skills that I've pulled together over the last 30 years can be exchanged for cash.

That's cool. I'll take that situation for as long as I need to.

Eventually, I'd like my books to pay the bills, and who knows maybe that will happen, but I'm certainly not hung up on it.

The fact is I'm writing and creating audio content because I compelled to do so.

No other reason.

I'm taking my advice and making for the sake of it.

I think you should too.

Now if your art is how you pay the bills and you're feeling the pressure of that, then perhaps you should get a day job to fill in the gap.

Being Broke And In A Bad Place

I've been broke as a pie crust, and I know how it feels.

It's not a comfortable place to be. Of course, it was self-imposed just like yours is.

Because you see, there is nothing that we experience that we didn't make ourselves. That's the uncomfortable truth of this experience is.

We make it all.

You already know this but perhaps its hard to admit.

Sometimes the ability and means to earn a few extra buck are staring us right in the face, but we're so full of our own importance that we can't see it.

Eventually, something will give, and it's not nice to be it the way when it falls.

Best I feel to make what you can of what you've got.

Get comfortable doing that for a while, make peace with it and create time and space to make the stuff you were meant to do so.

Disconnect the money thing from the art thing and maybe something will shift.

The money will eventually find its way.