Wealthy, Successful, and Miserable

Well, as you read this I should be in the United States somewhere after six months abroad. Maybe I’m jet lagged, or at minimum sleeping much too late to adjust to crossing the International Date Line into the past.

I can’t say for sure, because I’m taking no chances and putting this issue together ahead of time. It’s amazing I’m doing anything at all here in Fiji, though, given that I seem to have misplaced my ambition (and my shoes).

Since I’ve been collecting more interesting content than I can hope to write about lately, I’m reverting to the former Further format for just this week. Including, notably, a reminder that chasing money alone will not make you happy.

Here’s that and rest of the stuff I think you’ll be into. Enjoy!

further: top five

Mo’ Money, No Meaning

“The upper echelon is hoarding money and privilege to a degree not seen in decades. But that doesn’t make them happy at work.” Boo hoo, right? Well, isn’t this true for a lot of people in other income tax brackets as well? A staggering 87 percent of employees are not engaged at work, according to Gallup.

“I feel like I’m wasting my life,” says a guy earning $1.2 million a year. “My work feels totally meaningless.” It’s a lack of purpose that can make any of us feel this way, and no amount of money will make it better. Is it time for you to make a change? This is not a dress rehearsal … it’s the only life you’ve got.

America’s Professional Elite: Wealthy, Successful and Miserable

The Gospel of Work

On the other hand: “For the college-educated elite, work has morphed into a religious identity — promising identity, transcendence, and community, but failing to deliver.” My take is that if you have true meaning and purpose in your work, it’s hard not to make it a priority.

But other things, like your health and relationships, are not negotiable. And it’s not about work/life balance — it’s all one integrated whole that amounts to a wealthy life. Overdoing work at the expense of everything else is not noble. It likely means you’re purposefully avoiding other commitments that cause you trepidation, and yet you end up miserable all the same.

Workism Is Making Americans Miserable

Who Wants to Live Work Forever?

“If you’re 10 years or more away from retirement, there are many things you can do to prepare yourself financially and mentally so you make sound spending decisions once retirement arrives.”

Let’s not focus on “many things” … who has the time with all this work? How about five important things? Here they are:

How to Avoid the Retirement Freak-Out

Critical Mass

How can we get over our fear of negative feedback and let it guide us toward our best work? Constructive criticism is how we get better, but too often we’re doing whatever we can to avoid it, even when we deserve and downright need it.

Personally, I tend to push people who I care about. So this sentence from an article at Fast Company is worth mulling over: “If we really dislike someone, the last thing we would do is tell them how to improve.”

How to Train Yourself to Deal With Criticism

Unique Like Everyone Else

When I was in my 20s in the ’90s, I had the world figured out. The system, the man, the mainstream … I was better than that, and wasn’t about to be a follower. So to express my non-conformity, I dressed in Doc Martens, baggy cargo shorts, and flannel … just like everyone else.

“This is the hipster effect — the counterintuitive phenomenon in which people who oppose mainstream culture all end up looking the same. Similar effects occur among investors and in other areas of the social sciences.”

The Hipster Effect: Why Anti-Conformists Always End Up Looking the Same

Keep going-

Brian Clark

P.S. Dipped back in here to say RIP to Keith Flint of The Prodigy and Luke Perry of the most recognizable zip code in history. Too young to be gone … but then again, you never know when.