Earlier this week I was talking to a friend of mine about why, practically speaking, we work. I don’t mean why we do whatever it is that we really do, I mean why we keep up our day jobs. Underneath it all, it comes back to a very simple precept — you need money to buy food.

It got me thinking — how much money do you really need? One school of thought would have it that the more the better. This is why so many people end up fighting their way of the corporate/social ladder. They scratch and claw in hopes of a bump in pay grade so they can afford to buy more “stuff” to make them feel more secure, more in control. The reality is that this fighting drains time, happiness and ironically enough puts stresses on you that actually reduce the amount of control you have over your existence.

Study after study proves out the fact that there is a real hard cap to the happiness that money can buy you. After a certain point, the time you spend earning it is worth more than the money you could earn spending that time.

So how does this effect you?

Here’s a thought — the happiest people in the world are those who would do their “job” for free, given the opportunity. To these lucky few, their jobs are an extension of what makes them happy. If you look closely at the “satisfied” rich, what you’ll notice is that many of them got there because they took the concept of doing what they want to do to the extreme. They just kept plugging away at their passions until people started taking notice, and after huge amounts of hard work and devotion — money came, enough money to allow them the freedom to continue to pursue their passions.

There is no difference, at all, between you and any of these individuals. My challenge to you (the second today), is the truly decide, once and for all, how much money you need to earn in order to live. Once you get there, have the confidence in yourself to say enough is enough and stop. Start trading money for time and use that time to do those things that you are passionate about.

If you can commit yourself to this, I think you might be surprised at how much happier and oftentimes wealthier you will become.

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