“Time has a wonderful way of showing us what really matters.” ~ Margaret Peters
A lot of people ask me what I plan to do with my life and career now that I’m building one of my own design. Lately, I’ve been rolling around the question in my mind with this lens: what would I do with my life if money didn’t matter? Ironically, this exercise has led me to realize that time is the more important constraint and resource. Yesterday, I jotted down these dreams:
1.) I would go back to school. (Those who know me well shouldn’t be the least bit surprised by this.) I want to study acupuncture so I could set up my own holistic, multi-disciplinary practice to help people better manage and eradicate pain. I’m also interested in getting some more formal training in coding and design so that I can contribute more to the education tech and healthcare tech industries.
2.) I would spend more time writing a couple of long-form pieces that have been kicking around in my mind for years and exist in the form of detailed notes.
3.) I’d adopt a second dog, get a bigger place to live with a formal office space, and spend more time raising money for good causes, including Compass Yoga.
4.) I would teach more – yoga classes and college classes in product development.
5.) I would travel more often.
I discovered a beautiful truth by writing out these plans: the only one that really requires a heavy investment of money is studying acupuncture. That would require 3 years of intense study and about $60K in tuition alone. Getting a second dog and a larger place to live also requires additional funding, but not an enormous amount of it. Same goes for travel. I could absolutely write the long-form writing projects, learn more about coding and design thanks to free massive open online course and books, fundraise for more good causes, and teach more with the resources I currently have. In fact, I could earn additional income from some of these ventures.
The real constraint here is time, not money. I spend so much time thinking about piecing together my income from different sources when it isn’t even that important to the work I want to do. Granted, I do need money to survive and save for the future, but money can be made. Time cannot. And so, the question of what I will do with my career is not so much a question of earning money (I have plenty of ways to do that) but rather one of using my time to its maximum benefit. That set of priorities will take a bit more noodling.
Christa Avampato 