Making Money on Purpose
Purpose/Passion February 17th, 2010
Purpose is a wonderful topic to explore, and I believe that it’s a wonderful topic for every person to explore throughout their life. Purpose is something that ought to drive everyone’s lives, and unfortunately not everyone takes the time to discover it for themselves. Purposes also a much debated topic, and the notion of living for something that is greater than ourselves is not always easy to believe or understand. Critics like to argue against purpose in that if you are really fulfilling your life’s purpose, and doing it not for yourself, then you shouldn’t be making money doing it. I think you can do both, live with the purpose, and make money as a result, which is why I came up with that title for this article, “Making Money on Purpose”.
The Money Connection
Since money is so connected in everything we do, it spills over into our exploration for purpose as well. The question of, “Why do we do things?” and similar question, “What should we be doing?”, unfortunately are affected heavily by money. Making money at something is not necessarily a sign that you are not doing it for a reason beyond yourself, even though there are obviously many many examples where people continue to live a life chasing money instead of a greater purpose.
The Blinders of Money
Money and materialism puts blinders on all of us. Those blinders prevent us from seeing the big picture of life and we are stuck seeing only the next object in our life, the next promotion or the money attached to the things we buy, the time we spend and the places we go. We fail to see the value to others and the value to God in what we do, what we work towards and what we spend our money on. The value in those areas however are a direct sign of how we are living our purpose and we ought to consider them more carefully.
Making Money on Purpose
If we can see the connection of money to purpose and remove or at least reduce the blinders we experience in how we value money, we do have the chance to make money with our purpose in life. Purpose is not by how much money we are, but by how we go about doing it. It is possible to make money or earn a living while working towards a purpose beyond ourselves, and there’s nothing wrong with that if it’s the purpose that motivates us and not the money.
Being able to connect our passions, vocation, and relationships to a greater purpose is an incredibly fulfilling path to follow, regardless of whether money is earned along the way. Following a career path that utilizes the talents we each possess will make money on purpose, its unavoidable and there is nothing wrong with it. Our God given talents are the areas in life that we have the best chances to succeed with and using them allows us to develop skills faster than in other areas with a much greater impact in the results we get. They simply come more naturally for us, and will be far more rewarding when used in a life of purpose.
Purpose Creating Wealth
I want to take the idea of making money on purpose just one step farther. Consistently living on purpose is the definition I use for success, and I’m certain that each and every one of us if we are using the best of our talents in a purpose driven life, will not only make money but also much greater wealth. To me, money is a shortsighted view of wealth even though they are closely related because most people define wealth to be measured in dollars. Wealth to me though should be measured by what you do with your money and how you do. If we’re making money while living on purpose, the wealth we build will be determined by what we do with the money we earn as well as all the other benefits we will realize in the journey of living a life of purpose.
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Mike King
February 17th, 2010 at 8:45 AM
Appreciated your thoughts here Mike – I think you really make some good points, especially around the idea that money, and the making of it, is not necessarily a bad thing. This idea has been especially pronounced in some false Christian teachings which have almost made “making money” a taboo topic. Personally I see money as a tool. I have many tools to use in accomplishing my purpose and I want to choose the right ones to be as effective as possible.
I’m not sure that all life purposes will result in making money though. Some may result in losing it for much greater wealth.
Thanks for stirring the pot.
.-= Brad Davis´s last blog ..Living Simply or Simply Living =-.
February 17th, 2010 at 9:11 AM
Mike, thanks for a beautifully written article. There are two extremes that Christians get into, and I have been on both sides. On the one hand, there is the thought that wanting to make money is wrong, and that it is more spiritual to be poor. On the other hand, there is the all consuming desire just to think and grow rich. The mistake here is that money or lack of money becomes the focus.
It’s so much better to make God our focus, His Dreams and Mission for us our Purpose, and to be good stewards along the way, remembering that wealth is neutral, and that as long as He is my greatest Treasure, the wealth will take its proper place, as a tool/resource to be stewarded and shared generously.
.-= Steve-Personal Success Factors´s last blog ..Little Known Ways to Live Life Beyond Success =-.
February 17th, 2010 at 5:41 PM
WOW, are those links every annoying in this page, I must turn that plugin off if it is going to infect it like that….
@Brad – I was hoping you would chime in on this one. I didn’t quite express it as I intended. I feel that living your purpose brings forth opportunities to make money and if you truly seek your purpose in all areas of your life, that must include work and so you are bound to make money at it. I hope you know what I mean by that.
@Steve – So true and the point of focus on God rather than the money is definitely the right approach here when it comes to purpose. It’s an age old dilemna that is certainly always up for debate. Both of you pointing out that purpose is the focus and the money being a tool to achieve that is excellent.
When it comes to wealth, I guess I don’t really include money in that equation, I thinking broader in the way of having joy, passion and a purpose fulfilled. If you have those things, you are wealthy. Money may or may not play a large role along the way but it doesn’t stand on its own in my definition of what wealth is.
February 18th, 2010 at 12:42 AM
Wealth is something we see negatively, I don’t know where this perception have come. I believe that our purpose in life is to live our life to the fullest and experience life as it is. We are meant to live a life of bounty, not a life of lack. Money in itself is neither good or bad, it is our intention that give it its meaning. 🙂
February 18th, 2010 at 1:48 AM
Seems like we all agree in principle on money being just and object and our intentions being what matters – I wonder why in practice we always seem to end up focusing on the money? Or is this just my perception?
@Mike – I think we’re on the same page, but I have trouble with the phrases “not only make money” and “bound to make money at it”. I think that if one can align their work with their purpose then often money will follow – these tend to be the people that excel and are typically rewarded well for it. And we could list many examples of people where this isn’t true: stay-at-home moms, aid workers, and religious leaders including Jesus. As a more personal example, 5 years ago when we had our first child my life purpose changed dramatically – to the point that we were willing to quit a good job and spend a three months losing money to do what I think was more important for our kids – building wealth! I’d even go so far as to say that for some people, their purpose/goals actually interfere with making money!
Basically I don’t think you can relate “probability of making money” with “alignment to ones purpose” as they are orthogonal concepts 🙂
.-= Brad Davis´s last blog ..Living Simply or Simply Living =-.
February 18th, 2010 at 12:37 PM
Great Post!
OSHO Quoted: Each person comes into this world with a specific destiny. He has something to fulfil, some message to be delivered, some work to be completed. You are not here accidentally; you are here meaningfully. There is a purpose behind you.
I believe ‘Purpose’ can be defined as ‘MOTIVE’ to reach the Goal. There is nothing wrong in creating wealth as long as we do not ignore family, friends and relatives.
That is the reason we build our nest egg to have a safe and peaceful retirement.
According to a survey the top reasons people are rich:
Habitual Saving, Sound investing, An inheritance, and Starting a successful business.
Cheers,
Cheryl Paris Blog
.-= Cheryl Paris´s last blog ..How to boost your attitude to success =-.
February 18th, 2010 at 8:10 PM
@Walter – thanks so much for adding your thoughts here as well. I guess that perception of wealth comes from the fact that so many people associate it and money in a negative way. I certainly wish that wasn’t the case.
@Brad – Well you certainly make me think here. I see your points and I can say I do agree on some fronts with what you don’t like about those phrases, yet at the same time, I’m writing from a perspective of the way most people work and go about their lives. Most don’t follow a purpose, most don’t have passion. When that is found and followed, that is when I feel money will follow as a result because people perform at their best when they are using their God given talents in EVERYTHING they do. You are right in that you may choose to eliminate the possibility of money in some areas of your life, but if you are truly using talents in all areas, don’t you think it will simply start showing up in other ways again? For example, what about some of our great examples who followed their talents and purpose, think of Mother Teresa. While she didn’t hang on to money on a personal level, everything she did to expose her talents brought more and more wealth into her work and the influence she made in the world. She brought in more money as a result of doing that for everything she was doing. Millions of people supported her and gave money as a direct result. I think this is the ultimate result when using our talents to their fullest in a life of purpose. I hope that explains my point of view on this and its great to have the challenge to explore this further! Much appreciated Brad to have you step in on these points!
@Cheryl – THanks for adding your thoughts here as well and creating wealth. You are right, the right reasons must be behind it. I am definitely starting to question the argument of retirement nest eggs though as I think that runs a risk of steering us away form purpose and towards money. Its a difficult line to balance that is for sure. Thanks for the your comment!
February 22nd, 2010 at 7:52 AM
It doesn’t matter how much money we have if we don’t have meaningful relationships, health and balance. Most of the time we are so focused on making money we forget or ignore other areas. I met a janitor in a rehab place I worked in that was happier than than many of the therapists that worked in the place for much more money. He had less money and his purpose lied beyond how much money he made. Sometimes we forget that life on earth isn’t the end of the road.
.-= Tess The Bold Life´s last blog ..Dream An Impossible Dream =-.
February 22nd, 2010 at 9:40 AM
Money is not a problem in itself, but the ultimate pursuit of money and wealth above everything else is an issue. There has to be balance with everything one does in life, and if you are too fixated on one thing the universe will eventually even things out for you, whether you like it or not…. 😉
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:11 PM
If money does not need to exist as a thing it does not have to be created and distributed. People will earn money solely on the basis of their delivery of value to others, not through charging interest, trading it in money markets and a multitude of other ways without delivering anything of real value.
.-= dslr camera´s last blog ..Fujifilm Finepix S5 Pro 12.3 Megapixels (Nikon Lens Mount) Body Only Kit =-.
February 23rd, 2010 at 8:01 AM
@Tess, well said that our life on Earth is not the end of the road.
@Industry news – Absolutely, I think everyone seems to agree that money is the problem directly, but what you choose to do with it and how you chase after it.
@dslr – I’m not sure I understand your point, but the thinking that money earned by delivering value to others is more valuable than money earned on its own, like interest and trading??
February 23rd, 2010 at 1:42 PM
If money does not need to exist as a thing it does not have to be created and distributed.
March 5th, 2010 at 10:53 AM
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March 15th, 2010 at 4:39 AM
Wealth can bring you happiness and better standards of living. It can also be one factor or motivation for one to work harder. As for me, as long as we are happy, wealth sometimes doesn’t matter.
.-= Alvin Nyau´s last blog ..PIKOM PC Fair Malaysia 2010 – where, when, venue, location, date, time =-.
March 23rd, 2010 at 5:28 PM
I am currently in a Success through context course and it has been very enlightening seeing what hangups we have about money, and when you make money buy making a difference how much better you can sleep at night.
March 26th, 2010 at 7:35 AM
Thanks for your post,
I think that the purpose is about providing value,
Providing value for only a few people like for example a hart surgeon that ‘repairs’ somebodies hart, or a popstar that provides something else of value (possibly also ‘repairing’ harts :)) on a much larger scale,
for large crowds.
On my Home Business Lifestyle Blog(spot) at the left side
under the ‘Good Books for Making Money Online’-ad
you can find under the (blue color) title:
‘Did you already check out?’
You can find…,
4 interesting (creative) way’s, that you can provide value while making money online:
1) with Stock Photography (helping to convey a message)
2) with Answering peoples questions (helping)
3) with ‘Music Producing’ (offering support)
4) with (copy) Writing. (helping to convey a message)
‘Hope this will provide you
with some new ideas…?’,
All the Best,
To your Happy – Home Business Learning – Inspiration,
HP