What would I do?
The answer was pretty surprising. Whenever, in the past decade, I'd think it would be really nice to have a million dollars -- at least -- I'd ask myself, "What would I be doing right this moment, if I had a million dollars in the bank?"
Amazingly, most of the time, the answer was, "The exact same thing I'm doing now." If I was watching a television program, I would still be watching that same program if I had a million in the bank. If I was reading a book, having a million in the bank wouldn't change the fact that I was reading that particular book. If I was going grocery shopping, I would still be going grocery shopping, though if I had a million, I might do the shopping online and expect to have the groceries delivered to my doorstep. If I was going on a country drive some Sunday morning to enjoy the scenery, if I had a million in the bank I'd still be enjoying that Sunday morning drive.
The most obvious difference is that I wouldn't be working. Yet, if I wasn't working because I no longer needed the money, it's highly likely that I would be doing some project, or helping someone out, in a way that would still require a certain degree of responsibility, or perhaps even a deadline, in a sense. So, it's not like by not working I suddenly would never have anything expected of me, ever again.
Realizing that my life would be only minimally changed by having a million dollars was very enlightening. I didn't need a million dollars to do what I most enjoy doing in any given moment. That awareness made me feel very, very rich.
Since I'm aware of the law of attraction, some have said, "If you believe you create your own reality, then why don't you create a million dollars for yourself?" I don't have passion for money for the sake of money. I buy lottery tickets because it would be "nice" to win a million dollars, or two. But I don't feel an intense desire to have that money in the bank -- because it wouldn't enrich my life that much -- the way I have an intense desire to feel joy and appreciation for my life in every moment I possibly can. The latter doesn't require a million dollars.
When I last had a real job, I worked in Personnel and therefore did payroll, and sometimes a co-worker would be in my office and make a point of telling me "if only I made a hundred dollars more a month..." as though hoping I'd run and tell the boss "Mr. Jones really, really needs a raise of a hundred dollars, and then his life will be perfect." I never did any such thing. First, if I was going to try to get someone a raise, the raise would be for myself. Secondly, I'd had those same trains of thoughts -- if only I could make X amount, and then all my bills could be easily paid. Yet, years later I'd be making X amount, and my bills would also be all the higher, so I wasn't any better off.
This realization about money -- that the amount is actually rather irrelevant -- was just as profound as the realization I had about the subject of time at some point in the past decade. When I stopped thinking in terms of, "I don't have time", I found myself having enormous amounts of free time. Nothing in my exterior life was different; the only thing that had changed was my thoughts about time. I quit thinking of it as something in short supply.
It is amazing how wonderful life can be when one thinks in terms of what they have, rather than what they don't have.
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