Po Bronson's long piece in this month's Fast Company (adapted from a book-length project) reviews the question, "What Should I Do With My Life?" as answered by many people in many walks of life. A good question to think about on New Year's Day. Certainly one that I often ask myself, especially when coming off of a week-long holiday of lots of joyous blogging, work on two novels, a new novella and an anthology, reading, going to the movies, haunting the coffee shops, seeing friends.
The ruling assumption is that money is the shortest route to freedom. Absurdly, that strategy is cast as the "practical approach." But in truth, the opposite is true. The shortest route to the good life involves building the confidence that you can live happily within your means ( whatever the means provided by the choices that are truly acceptable to you turn out to be ). It's scary to imagine living on less. But embracing your dreams is surprisingly liberating. Instilled with a sense of purpose, your spending habits naturally reorganize, because you discover that you need less.
This is an extremely threatening conclusion. It suggests that the vast majority of us aren't just putting our dreams on ice — we're killing them.
(via CamWorld)
