Money Freedom

"There has to be a better way to make money than to have a "job"". This is what my friend Patricia declared at a brunch not so long ago, and then again at another brunch a few months ago, and then again at a brunch a few weeks ago. It rings true. The third time it finally dawned on me, there is no shame in wanting to create income by working efficiently, only when necessary, at things we like and with all our passion, AND being well remunerated for it.

My brother is one of those people who actually figured out a way. He now works from home, with his own schedule, doing what he loves to do (http://www.locucion.netfirms.com/), in the city where he loves to live (Buenos Aires), and lives happily ever after. However, as he transitioned into this new lifestyle he was filled with feelings of guilt over having so much time off, and sensations of worthlessness because it suddenly became easy and abundant to live well.

As I write this I sit on downtown NYC Starbucks. Because of the location, most of the people around me are working, perhaps taking a break from the cubicle or the office, but with their berries on hand, and making phone calls. I hear one guy in particular because his intention in speech is strong, his voice loud, and his reassurance to the other caller ever louder: "Then leave it that way, I don't want to change the schedule and then find out we did not met the target"... "So this will probably bring us to July with the right numbers". These are pieces of the puzzle of his speech.

I can't help but wonder how much of these conversations are really necessary, especially when I notice he repeats the same idea over and over with different words, same hurried intention. How much sense of importance and of being productive does he derive from this style of conversation, never mind what he is actually saying, but more likely from what he "appears" to be doing.

Yesterday afternoon while talking to an incredibly successfull entrepreneur he described to me how sometime ago, for a couple of months he went to different cities to attend meetings, and how none of those meetings ever resulted in anything productive.

How much of our time do we actually spend trying to seem productive? Caring for the internal voice that judges us much more harshly than any society or any "other people". How much time goes in justifying to ourselves that we are worth it?

And what would happen I wonder, if we all put it in our heads that we would be productive in a, well, "productive way", then have fun, do yoga, or the things that are meaningful to us, or even better, that we would only do the things that are meaningful to us, and that may include playing a little, or a lot, taking a nap, walking in nature, as well as building that new company.

Are we ready to accept that it is OK for us to do what we love and let money follow?