What Do You Want More of Right Now?

What Do You Want More of Right Now?

What do you want more of right now?

• Sex
• Beer
• Sleep
• Money?

I was curious the other day, so I decided to poll my Twitter folks just to see what would happen :) Here’s how 587 of them voted:

Probably doesn’t come as a surprise that money came in at #1 with an audience of $$$ enthusiasts, but look at what’s second: SLEEP!!! The thing that should be one of the easiest (and free) of the group to get, however apparently not? And then we have sex at #3 which is also shockingly low, followed by beer which I guess makes sense, although it was right before Happy Hour when I was posting this?

Still, as you can see, there’s more to life than just money :) At least depending on the time of day.

And I think subconsciously I was thinking about all of this because of a post that Joshua from BecomingMinimalist.com wrote that really hit me pretty good: What Do You Need Right Now?

He hypothesized the following which I completely agree:

“My guess is that most of us, when asked “What do you need right now?” would not answer with anything that comes from a department store or retail website. We have far more significant needs in our lives. Far more important pursuits that we wish to accomplish”

And then he continues with:

“An important follow-up question to the original [question] might be, “How much time and energy are you putting into seeing those needs met?””

Think about that for a second. How much time ARE we spending towards the things that actually matter in our lives? The things that aren’t really “things” at all, but dreams and goals or quality time with others and ourselves (at rest time!). What DO we really need out of this life, and how hard are we actively going after them?

I didn’t put “goals” on the list of options in my poll, but if you look at all those I did give, none of them were around more “stuff,” interestingly enough.

• Beer: falls under “enjoyment”
• Sex: doubly falls under “enjoyment!” ;)
• Sleep: “health/happiness/necessity”
• Money: All of the above + FREEDOM

(You’ll also notice I swapped in “want” instead of “need” in my questioning compared to Joshua’s, so it’s definitely skewed since most people take action on what they WANT vs what they NEED, despite our best efforts ;) Plus of course, I gave people a specified list of answers to pick from rather than letting them answer for themselves, haha…)

Scientific polling or not though, asking yourself what you really want right now is important to consider every now and then, particularly if you’re constantly in “go” mode.

If we really want more sleep, why aren’t we going after it? If sex is at the bottom of the list, is it because we’re getting enough or is it just not that important to us right now? If beer indeed comes in at dead last on your priorities, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU??? ;)

It’s also good to keep in mind that you often want different things at different times. In the mornings you may crave coffee/sex/money, and in the evenings sleep/entertainment/companionship. Just like on the weekends your mind is off chasing things you normally wouldn’t go for during the work week.

And that’s important to define, because if you can understand what you truly want at any given period of time, you can better prevent yourself from wasting time and energy/money on things that aren’t as important in the moment and instead direct it towards that which are.

How often do we crack open a beer or just randomly go out and buy something because we know it can make us happy, even though at that particularly time it wouldn’t? Or how often do we cave and have sex/take on a new project even though they’re the last things we actually want in the moment?

Most things in life are enjoyable, but they’re even more so when consumed at the right time and at the right place. Put anything in different context, and it can totally change the outcome.

Anyways, all this to say it’s good to be as conscious with your time and money as possible, and more often than not it’s not more “stuff” we’re after, but rather fulfillment and happiness.

Plus, I just really wanted to talk about sex and beer today ;) 10 years of blogging about finance can tend to get old, haha… Gotta keep things fresh!

 

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[For more $$$ nuggets, head over to Budgets Are Sexy!]

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