I’ve always fancied myself good about not needing a lot of money or material things. I can be insufferable about it on my worst days, honestly, gleefully goofing on people who say they NEED marble countertops in their house to be happy.
The joke’s on me, though. While many might still be outsourcing their happiness to material possessions, I’ve been outsourcing mine to an even more laughable need—achievement.
This short but substantive video talks about the trap of debt. Materially, the more money you assume you need to be happy, the more “in debt” you feel despite having an otherwise plentiful salary. So far, so basic. But! Feelings of debt don’t only apply to monetary aspirations—we feel just as indebted when we chase unrealistic or exceptional achievement.
It might feel nobler to say, “I’m not interested in money, just in being the BEST [insert career here] in the world.” But if you think about it, is it any better than material debt to live in constant “accomplishment debt” or, to put it more honestly, “status debt”?
Because this really does boil down to status. And, as the video points out, it’s best for happiness to “tie satisfaction to what’s already abundant,” yet “status games deal with scarcities.”
Focusing on scarcities—feeling in debt—is what ties many of us to jobs that take away our life, attempting to ease our phantom unfulfillment when we otherwise have no material reason to stay. Ironically, it keeps us perpetuating a system that keeps scores of others in actual physical debt and hunger.
Antiwork is knowing we have enough.
Antiwork is knowing we are enough.