I need to make money

dear friends,

My bank account is not happy. I have 3 options, simply:

a) sell more stuff (more favorable)

b) cut costs and expenses (less favorable)

c) dig into stocks (highly unfavorable)

…

If I had a blank check, I wonder if I would be tempted to write an undisclosed, absurd amount; at what cost? What would that really solve?

If I had all the money in the world, what would be the point of money?

Money solves certain problems, but it cannot solve everything. In total equilibrium, life would be boring. For certain kinds of people, all the money in the world would not be enough. This is the definition of greed. You will never know when enough is enough, when you imagine that blank check, on how it could solve all your problems and more. It's the classic trope, a deal with the devil.

Yet, money is a resource: it is a form of energy. I cannot deny this truth that money sustains our well-being. How much money do you really need to live?

Yes, we need to outpace inflation. Yes, the cost of living continues to rise. We are all in a race to gain wealth; the rat race is hard to escape (even for a hamster like me). But it's not impossible. And there is no one way to escape it. You are not helpless. Understand we choose our headaches in life. There is nothing wrong with a 9-5 if that is how you sustain yourself. I am not one to judge. I envy the stability. But, if you decide a path in which you reject the traditional structured way, I warn you- it's not easy. In fact, you will question your sense of worth critically from time to time, more often than not.

I am going through the waves. I question every act I take, wondering what it will produce for me. I am not a fan of this mode of thinking, but I understand this is me operating within survival mode. I need to make money. To make my ends meet. There is nothing inherently wrong to being motivated by money. However, it can be a slippery slope. It can lead humans into performing strange acts and follow weird behaviors. Yet, we are not irrational creatures. Money is all psychology.

Most people do what they have to do to get to the next the living state. To reach a level of homeostasis and stability within their well-being. To reach their aim and desires. Understand the void you are trying to fill.

Is the answer really more money?

your friend(ly),

jakester

Main Aim: to create (and maintain) a healthy relationship with money while finding meaning and flourishment in life.

"Do not lose your child-like wonder in the pursuit of money."

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The green-eyed monster! The green-eyed monster!

Oh! How he sings and dance. In decadence, we fall. In decadence, we rot. We dance and sing along, merrily! How merry, we are, all capable of evil acts! You are no lesser, you are no better; don't act so righteous, my friend!

What folly! What foolishness we fall into. For what? How do we not notice? How do we not see? We have grown blind; blind to the green-eyed monster.

It makes me sick. Sick to my core. Why am I sick?

The green-eyed monster is neither good nor evil. They simply exist in decay, an indifferent witness to you. It is you who is good. It is you who is evil. You justify what you decide. You take it all into consideration in every act: a signal, an expression.

You are the green-eyed monster.

Down, deep below. Do you repress it? Do you let it live? You hunger. You starve. You know you must eat. You know you must feed it. But to what end?

Money and morality. Morality birthed money. Money mechanized morality.

Detach yourself. Be honest and move closer to what is true. Does your internal model match to what is actually happening out in the Universe; to the Truth?

I have this anxiety towards the commercialization of creativity and self because I fear the numbness, a cold indifference. I have this fear that the Universe is indifferent; that reality itself does not allow for connection. That we are all alone in this cold universe.

I fear we all hold this anxiety. We forget how interconnected we really are. The world, rather the shadow of society, leads us to forget who we are and how to love. Money is indifferent, money is not evil. Yet money leads us to blind greed and indifference. It leads us to justify our cruel, evil acts. No person desires evil, yet we are all capable of evil acts. We all can admit how imperfect we are.

What do we sacrifice for the purpose of money?

We rid ourselves the bids of connection offered to us. We lack a source of love because we believe that we must ignore bids of connection with others, with the world, with nature in order to live a better life all for the sake of more money. Money may allow for greater impact and greater connections. But what is at the source? What makes us believe that money is evil? Why are we so tempted by it?

It's because money is an exchange of energy and resources, of trust and value. A source of energy?

…

I want to be a source of life for myself. I want to be a source of light for myself. To be a flywheel of hope and love compounding on itself. This is why I write, why I document, why I share what's within, even if it is highly vulnerable and personal with no near financial gain. I am an energizer bunny. A source of energy.

Reinvention fails those who hide pain.

Therefore, I must provide myself hope and love; a metabolic process of self-replication. Yet, how can such a occur when energy can neither be created nor destroyed? I cannot just create energy from thin air.

Life is sustained by a continuous flow of energy; life is in constant disequilibrium. Life possess a function of a strange loop, self-functioning, full of exchanges of energy. Life is capable of enacting expression onto its environment or onto itself.

In life, we look to hold onto this flow of energy, this resource we try to hoard. We want to be providers, we want to give life into ourselves, to maintain a stable equilibrium. We are not stronger than the Universe. We are not stronger than Nature. We are not stronger than God.

We may not control this flow of energy, but we may possess the power and agency to direct this flow, especially as it pertains to ourselves, our own spirit, and of the levers in which we control. "Control what you can control."

…

I am in a state of stress and scarcity because I am aware of this pressure money has on me. I am aware of these societal obligations pressed onto me. I am aware of the pressure of life itself being acted upon me.

I have this strong desire to be a source of life, to be a giver, a provider for others, for those I love and deeply care about. I do not want to appear weak; my ego is challenged, these primordial survival mechanisms bubbling out from within. I am aware of these forces. Must I repress them?

I am not a victim. I am not a victimizer. I am a vessel, a perspective for which energy flows.

I do not partake in activities without good intention. Without a good end in mind. Without a deeper sense of why. A mission greater than I.

Be a channel for life and love to pass through. You control what passes. Evil is the blockage of life and love. Evil is missing the mark of what is true. Let love pass.

As the seasons change, you learn from new angles, of life's meaning. We act as abridge towards meaning, a medium, a perspective for our own self-symbol.

Do not fear evil. Do not ignore evil. Do not be blind to evil. Confront with love and live on, beyond what is known, what is held, and of our own limiting beliefs.

Money is not alive. We are. How do you feel alive?

Life is not jest a struggle between individual beings fighting for existence.

Here, I would like to challenge the paradigm of Darwin's theory as it relates to the Sisyphean struggle for existence itself. The Sisyphean struggle metaphor assumes life is fighting entropy, burning energy to maintain improbable order.

Life is in constant disequilibrium. Life is an organized state of activity far from equilibrium. It's sustained by a continuous flow of energy, not just a static structure. Life possess a function of a strange loop, self-functioning, full of exchanges of energy. Life is capable of enacting expression onto its environment or onto itself.

What is life? What is this life? Where does life come from?

New Theories on the Origin of Life with Dr. Eric Smith

To explain simply, nature made life because it helped allow energy to move faster.

Therefore, I posit the question:

Do we truly live in a Darwinistic world where we must struggle to survive? To beat out competition and constantly adapt to the ever-changing environment?

To a degree, yes. We must adapt and evolve. We must always be learning, constantly digesting information. But, it is not always a win-lose binary. There is room for us all to live and exist together. Energy just needs to be optimized and used more efficiently. That is the aim. The ideal aim of money and resources.

But good intentions are always met with hardship.

Yet, if we can change our view of how we see the world, how we see life, it could aid in how we act, how we behave, and how we interact with the ecosystems we live in. To be conscious of how we spend our life and of what we spend our energy on.

To live below our means and to allow for energy to pass.

Exhalation; divine breath. The Universe is alive? A living ecosystem? Life compounds, we all lie flat, in the end. Take witness with love.

To pay the piper; does the piper need to be paid? I lie and contemplate.

What will you spend your life doing?

Do you know who you want to be?

Question everything. To what end? To what purpose?

You need space to grow, space to think, space to breathe. Lie flat if you must, but don't die on purpose. Live with purpose. Lie with purpose. Don't lie to yourself. Never stop learning, my friend. Money is not evil. Monkey is not evil.

Find compounding friends. Find compounding relationships. Find compounding mentors. Find compounding opportunities. Let them unfold. Give love to them. Give energy to them. Give life to it all. Give it your all. Create a source of love, a flywheel of hope. The investments will fall and rise through time. You will fall and rise in time. But overtime, through the grander scheme on a vast time horizon, love will always win tenfold and more. A spiral of life? A life of pi.

The divine makes us folly, how superfluous, we are. We see the divine madness as superfluous, how silly we are, I jest in guess. Digest? In the grander scheme, it all becomes a folly, how silly it all is. How silly we all are! A jester, a friend, a God, a soul, a sage, a thinker, a machine, we fall; how beautiful in flux, the crux we find.

Step back and breathe. Take sight, delight. Be calm, collect; cool your breath.