Note 32 - Money
Remember to keep focusing in on the end result - the feeling. how your life feels to you when things are 'right'.
don't get distracted by the frequency of hope. the 'maybe this thing will turn out to be what i want'. that makes you focus away from the end result - how the end result feels - and you get off the path of it. (especially when you get into a daydream about it and start imagining a long, drawn out extrapolation of how things could go and then it starts to go sour and you can't find a way to make it feel better anymore and then end up really discouraged and not wanting to follow that initial 'shiny object' at all anymore. don't do that. :P )
-when the daydream starts to feel bad, remind yourself that it won't look like this. everything will probably look very different or not like you expect at all, and go back to the state of being for how you want to feel.
we're not saying don't be excited about that thing. we're saying to keep the end feeling in mind, rather than getting focused on chasing the 'shiny new projection'. because that's all it is. a projection. that end spot may or may not end up looking like what you think it might based on what you're seeing in the 'here and now', as we/you put it.
technically, that 'end spot' doesn't really exist since, every time you get that thing you think you want, you have a new spot to want more from. wanting more is good and fine. feeling dejected or sad because it isn't here right now or whatever other reason is when it's a problem, because then you're focused away from that end spot.
The goal isn't the thing. Restate: The thing isn't the goal.
You think you want the thing. Person, place, experience, whatever. We think we want the thing.
We don't.
I promise.
It's not the -thing-. It's the way that thing makes us feel. Or, even more precisely stated: It's the way we -think- that thing will make us feel.
it's the meanings and beliefs we have attached to that thing, or person, or situation. For x, y, z reason we believe that having more money will make us happier. and why not? More of it means, maybe, some debt paid off. It means being able to work a little less, maybe spend more time with the family. It could mean being able to go out to eat a few times a month, or spend some more on a favorite hobby. getting that new thing you want.
But...it's not the money, exactly, that you want. It's the feeling of being able to breath a little easier, because you don't have that debt over your head. or the feeling of closeness from feeling like you have the time to spend with the people you care about, rather than maybe feeling like you have to work all the time or be constantly coming up with ideas on how to spend more time with them while still working on what keeps you busy. It's the feeling of joy in getting that thing that allows you to do other things you -also- want to do.
Money -isn't- that and can't make you -feel- that. not by itself. Money is just another thing. A wonderful, useful, fun and versatile thing, for sure. But it's still not the feeling that you're going for. it's a means to an end. (One of my favorites, personally lol) But there's always multiple ways.
But it's not the end goal. The end goal is how your life feels to you. how you feel in your body, your relationships, in your career, in your whole life. There're ...what was it, 8 different major subjects? Something like that. A handful or two of major subjects in our lives. categories, if you will, I think.
If each of those feels a certain way, and you want them each to feel a specific way - then each one is a 'mask' that you put on. Granted, this is more for the ones who don't feel like they get to be 100% themselves in a particular, if any, area of their life.