Comments on: Getting Energy and Meditation on a Coke Can http://ch.aoti.ca/2007/03/getting-energy-and-meditation-on-a-coke-can/ One Red Hot Country Mama! Sun, 20 Feb 2011 21:31:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: Mac http://ch.aoti.ca/2007/03/getting-energy-and-meditation-on-a-coke-can/comment-page-1/#comment-216 Mac Sat, 31 Mar 2007 16:36:13 +0000 http://ch.aoti.ca/?p=146#comment-216 I may be flying off in a different direction with the following, but if you stick with me I think there's a connection. There is a process advocated in one or more books ("Your Money or Your Life," by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, comes to mind) where one considers the true cost of acquiring things. The process involves looking at ones income and considering how many hours of ones life is put into earning the income. $800 per week of income over 40 hours of work would be $20 per hour. Simple? Not so much. How much time is spent getting to work? Time spent shopping for clothes that wouldn't be purchased except for work? Time spent flopped in front of a television after work, too exhausted for a more meaningful activity? Each of these and a host of other work-related activities should be added to the 40 hours actually at work. They are part of your work week. Then there's the *cost* of commuting to work, the cost of the work clothes and the cost of other little and not-so-little purchases that are work related. All those costs should be deducted from the money earned because they are a price paid to earn the income. And I haven't even considered the effect of taxes, which is substantial. So... at the end of the week one might just find that instead of earning the $20 per hour that we thought we were, we are actually earning much less than half of that (seriously - do the math). So when we are purchasing "products" (whatever those might be, from pharmaceutical cures to get-away vacations) we need to actually work a lot more than we thought we did in order to pay for them. In other words, we must give up a lot of ourselves. The question is, is it worth the effort? All that said to say this. Maybe more of the long walks, early bedtimes, warm baths or similar experiences that are relatively inexpensive, would free up time to not be at work, which might just allow us more time for long walks, talking with friends, reading books, giving... In short (ok, too late for that - sorry), maybe it's all about learning what we don't need and learning not to expend our limited energy acquiring those things, and focusing instead on the numerous enjoyable things that, quite often, have very little cost but substantial reward. I may be flying off in a different direction with the following, but if you stick with me I think there’s a connection.

There is a process advocated in one or more books (“Your Money or Your Life,” by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, comes to mind) where one considers the true cost of acquiring things. The process involves looking at ones income and considering how many hours of ones life is put into earning the income. $800 per week of income over 40 hours of work would be $20 per hour. Simple? Not so much.

How much time is spent getting to work? Time spent shopping for clothes that wouldn’t be purchased except for work? Time spent flopped in front of a television after work, too exhausted for a more meaningful activity? Each of these and a host of other work-related activities should be added to the 40 hours actually at work. They are part of your work week.

Then there’s the *cost* of commuting to work, the cost of the work clothes and the cost of other little and not-so-little purchases that are work related. All those costs should be deducted from the money earned because they are a price paid to earn the income. And I haven’t even considered the effect of taxes, which is substantial.

So… at the end of the week one might just find that instead of earning the $20 per hour that we thought we were, we are actually earning much less than half of that (seriously – do the math).

So when we are purchasing “products” (whatever those might be, from pharmaceutical cures to get-away vacations) we need to actually work a lot more than we thought we did in order to pay for them. In other words, we must give up a lot of ourselves. The question is, is it worth the effort?

All that said to say this. Maybe more of the long walks, early bedtimes, warm baths or similar experiences that are relatively inexpensive, would free up time to not be at work, which might just allow us more time for long walks, talking with friends, reading books, giving…

In short (ok, too late for that – sorry), maybe it’s all about learning what we don’t need and learning not to expend our limited energy acquiring those things, and focusing instead on the numerous enjoyable things that, quite often, have very little cost but substantial reward.

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