I’m noticing more and more lately how quickly life is taken away from people. Unexpectedly or too soon and never really giving you enough time to do the things you want.

Mostly it becomes not enough time because people spend their lives working full time in order to save money and ultimately wait for this ‘retirement’ that might never come. We so easily put things off with the idea in mind that we will do them at a later date.

But, What if we lived our lives doing exactly what we want to do?

I once listened to a speech that completely changed my outlook on life. If you haven’t heard this yet I urge you to give it a listen:

Whilst we all wish we could just stop working and do whatever we want to do in life, unfortunately it’s just not that straightforward. Because we do actually need money to get by. However, I completely understand the point he is trying to make and recently applied it to my own life.

Last week I decided to leave my job and take some time out. Money is so much lower on my priority list when compared to happiness. I wasn’t happy spending a whole 5 days of the 7 we get in a week doing something that didn’t enlighten me one bit!

When I decided to leave, I didn’t have anything lined up but it was so important for me to put my mental health before my financial health and I decided to take the plunge.

Just as Alan Watts says:

“When we finally got down to something, which the individual says what he really wants to do, I will say to him, you do that and forget the money, because, if you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living, that is to go on doing things you don’t like doing, which is stupid. Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way.”

So now I’m down in Suffolk visiting my grandma and making the most of my time out.

Recent events have me thinking myself what I would do if money was no object. It has me thinking about where I would like to go for my annual big trip in August and where I would go if I could go anywhere in the world?

At the end of the day, money does control our lives most of the time but the important lesson is to not let it. Too many people go to work, come home then sleep and repeat, living for the weekend but not really happy with their life.

I don’t know what the future will hold for me but I’m determined not to waste any time. To enjoy what I do and spend my time with the people I love.

What would you do if money were no object?