The Rich Man’s Poor Problem

If you had everything you’d ever need to survive, what would be the point of living?

If you already had a roof over your head, unlimited food, water, clothes, heat, electricity, internet and any other necessity without the need to work for it, where is the challenge?

You might have all these survival necessities in the immediate future, and they might run out in a few years or so, but if they are, that’s still a decently long time and there would be no huge sense of urgency to find another way to support yourself right now.

Or, say, you experience daily chronic pain and mental problems which you blame on someone or something else out of your control. Those problems are what drive you to work on finding your own way to support yourself, so you can get away from the cause of these problems.

What if you realize that that person or thing wasn’t causing your problems directly, and you’ve just been blaming your problems on them because you want someone to blame? You want a reason to keep going, you want a challenge to overcome, you want something to work towards — a reason to keep living.

Again, what if you realize that no one is in your way. Time seems to stand still… you feel lost, unmotivated and stuck.

Then you realize how ungrateful you sound. People would kill to feel this way. People would kill not to have to work paycheck to paycheck. So you keep going.

But again.. the feeling comes back.. it’s like what people describe nicotine addiction as. They say it’s like wearing tight boots all day only to come home and feel the sweet relief of taking them off. You’re creating a problem just to feel the relief of solving it. But you never grow that way. You’re still right where you started.

So again, you keep going. If you’re smart, you reframe the situation as i’ve described, by realizing that this ‘free’ cost of living won’t last forever. So, if you’re strong enough, you get your degree as soon as possible, and a decent 9-5.

If you aren’t, you coast till it’s too late, drinking or smoking till life creeps up on you.

Or, you become a dreamer, and try to become successful by making your own business or something, or becoming a social media influencer or someone famous.