Dear my lovely LadiesOfHive members,
This is my entry for the contest #63rd. This is my first time writing in a contest since forever.
Thanks @trangbaby for creating this contest, the 2nd question really caught my attention and made me think for some time.
Let me share a little bit with you my reply to the 1st question because it relates to my thoughts and answer for the 2nd question.
What are your goals that you want to achieve in 2022?
2021 closes as a personal success in my own definition. The year of so much uncertainties brought opportunities for self-development, self-reflection and expanding my friend circle! It’s surprising that I made more friends in a few months of lockdown than the past 1 year. But again, everybody was at home and started to connect online via forum, courses, group talks and discussions. I am grateful for this year because my family, friends and I stayed healthy, I had enough food and supplies, I had tremendous support from groups that I join both as volunteer and as group leader. My work was busy and I contributed labor to my company to help clients during tough economic time as well as trained a new staff. And I had a lot more time to connect with myself, to understand myself and started and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
I will spend next week to work on my vision board for the next 3 years. In 2022, my goals are similar to 2021 plans: to design and live a well-balanced life inspired by the Wheel of life cycle, which includes these areas:
🐳 Physical: I continue to work on my health & stay in shape.
🐒 Mental & mind: I practice meditation daily for a healthy mind.
🐶 Family & relationship: I understand and heal past relationship wounds and connect deeper and more truthfully and authentically with family members. I attract my true love.
🦅 Self-development: I continue this journey of exploring, understanding and improving the true self.
🌷 Community: I continue to volunteer and give back, help spread positivity to the community.
🎯 Career & finance: I grow in my career, increase my income significantly while maintaining work life balance. I work towards my goal of being financially independent in the next 10 years.
🦄 Hobbies: I write and make YouTube videos and have 1000 followers.
With these goals for 2022, I can easily relate to question #2 and I think about it:
Would you trade 10 years of life for wealth and fame?
The offer is tempting of course because after all, my plan is to be financially independent in 10 years. The fame is not a big part of my plan but it is there as well. This makes me think deeply, even though I know right away my answer, I still reflect on the idea in more details.
I asked myself: why is such a question raised? It must be because there is a possibility that someone out there in the world would say Yes to the offer. I believe this is the current issue in our society: we want things and we want them now. We can’t wait and be patient, we demand more and we demand them right away. If we can’t have something quickly, we lose interest or motivation and a lot of people turn stressed, bitter and depressed. We may not hesitate to trade health and our precious time for money and fame. The result is more overworked, burnt-out and depressed members of the society, especially in some part of the world where wealth and fame are valued so importantly. This issue spreads to young children as well. If you have heard of instant gratification, you can observe how impatient children are. They have a lot more material items than previous generations but they also get bored easily and want more. My heart goes to them every time I think about this, and maybe that’s why I avoid thinking about it much! They stay stuck in that circle created by action of adults and common belief of the society. Adults are also stuck with work, promotion, bigger houses, nicer cars, expensive vacation trips and more work.
Let’s be clear. I don’t despise hard work and rewards to each individual. However, during this process, we forget to stop and look at the green grass, the bees and butterflies, the blue sky and white clouds, to smell the rose and to smile. We want time to fly quickly so we get to our final goal of having lots of money and success. That’s the reason I think people may choose to trade their 10 years of life for ultimate wealth and fame.
However, the answer for me is “No, thank you!” 😊
Probably I’d consider saying “Yes” if I was 15 now, I don’t know. But having lived through tough times in life, I value time so much that no money can buy or trade it. I can’t be sure my plan will work in 10 years and I will become wealthy & famous. But I am sure I will live my next 10 years meaningfully, to as many seconds and minutes as I can.
I think there are two main reasons leading me to say No to that offer.
🍀 The first is: I can modestly say I work hard and I am confident I can earn enough to live in wealth (according to my standards). I already feel wealthy now so why would I trade my precious time for wealth. My definition of wealth doesn’t limit in only amount of money I have in the bank, but rather my good health, my job that I enjoy, my relationship, my mental stage and my inner peace at the moment, my ability to breath, to see, to smile, to enjoy a cup of coffee and a chat with a new friend. All of these factors make me wealthy and happy. I am wealthy because I can spend time with my loved ones and make memories with them. I treasure the time spent with other people to create a human-to-human connection. And I am grateful and proud to say I am already living a wealthy life.
🍀 The second reason is as important as the first one. Even if I was in lack of money and fame, I would still choose to walk my path, to experience life to the fullest, to prove my ability. This is only my opinion on this matter. I believe life is worth living every minute. There is a saying that I repeat to myself all the time: “There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way” – Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh. I think everyone who wants wealth and fame has the ultimate goal of being happy in life. And by trading your living time to get to the end goal of happiness, you miss out a lot of. You miss out the journey and the joy and happiness of the way to get to your goals. Honestly, I believe it is completely different for a person achieving goals (or even half of his/her goals) through his/her hard work versus a person who suddenly gets the goals handed to him/her without any work required. Who will value the results more? Who has lived a meaningful and beautiful life full of experiences, even ups and downs to re-tell his/her life story? Who do you prefer to be?
Of course, I choose to work hard to achieve my goals. From past experiences, the joy I received throughout the process was as much, if not more than the end result.
I always hear about the curse of winning lottery. Imagine someone winning a lottery ticket and become rich overnight. The statistics show that he/she is likely to lose all money and become poor and in worse condition that before the winning. Imagine someone working hard, save and invest to earn the same amount of money. This person is less likely to lose money and even if he does, he knows exactly how to earn back the lost money, not relying on pure luck.
This trade of time for wealth and fame has some similarity with the lottery story. I imagine myself at 20 accepting the offer. Suddenly I am rich and famous and I’m 30 year old. I feel extremely lucky, I will go out to spend my money (easily earned) without any knowledge of financial planning and management. I can quickly use up all money I just get. Let say I also become a famous athlete. I have tons of fans who cheer when they see me on the street. But I have not idea how to train to be an athlete and I have no patience, consistency or discipline to train and improve my skills. Very soon my competitors will beat me. This applies the same if I choose to be a famous actress or singer, a master chef, a politician, etc. I don’t have the skills required to be good at what I do and very quickly people forget me. Then what would I do? I probably consider trading another 15 years for more money and fame. I think my life would be over very quickly. I have intentionally foregone time with my parents, family and friends and especially time with myself. I won’t have time to travel, to learn new skills or to sit here and write this content 😊
To conclude, my life is to be lived, not to be traded, no matter what I am trading for. I hope you choose to live your life and spread joy throughout your lifetime. Together, let’s make this world a happier and more peaceful place!
With love, from Vung Tau, Dec 2021
P.S: again my big thanks to Trang for initiating this contest topic! I would like to invite my lovely friend @vivianne to participate in this contest. I hope everyone enjoy thinking and writing for this topic to close out 2021. Cheers!
Đúng quá cô gái ơi "my life if to be lived, not to be traded". Bài viết của em có rất nhiều điều đáng để suy ngẫm. C rất vui vì tuy e còn trẻ nhưng đã hiểu những quy luật của cuôc sống. Mọi thứ đều đơn giản nếu chúng ta nghĩ đơn giản và sống giản đơn. Cám ơn những chia sẻ của em nhé. Good luck with the contest
Cám ơn chị @dora381, phát hiện ra typo trong câu này 😁: "my life IS to be lived, not to be traded".
I hope that you will achieve all the goals you have set in 2022. And good luck with the contest! @nguyenthaonguyen
Thank you!!!!
I do like your mind map vision board and wish you all the best with your 2022 goals :D
Thank you for noticing my map! Wish you all the best as well for 2022 :D
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You have make a plan on how to spend your 2022 and I believe as far as you can dream it, you can achieve it. A plan without action is Nothing, everything is will be made possible since you believe you can.
Of course, fame without peace of mind is nothing, it better to crave for happiness than to crave for fame, I'm getting your points.
And again, doing things that will make you happy might guarantee a standard living for you.
Wish you good luck on the contest.
Thank you @maryjacy, I definitely agree that plans & action are the most important part for reaching our dreams.
Wish you all the best for 2022!
Thank you for the wish 😍
I hope you good luck in the next year
😍 thank you for your wishes. I hope you have a great year as well!
I like the saying:
“There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way” – Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh.
Thanks for sharing, @nguyenthaonguyen.
Good luck with the contest!
I'm happy you like this quote too. This is a constant reminder for me to not rush to the end results but enjoy the process as well. I enjoy writing and sharing this post so much. And I'm grateful you and others enjoy reading it.
Let see if I make it to the final round 😇
Thank you for the vote!!!😊
You received 2 LADY(LOH) tokens for entering the Ladies of Hive contest!
We believe that you should be rewarded for the time and effort spent in creating articles. The goal is to encourage token holders to accumulate and hold LOH tokens over a long period of time.
I value time so much that no money can buy or trade it.
This is a very wise thing to think and I share your opinion. I think that people realize this in their own rythm.
I like how you defined your goals for 2022. I wish you to succeed!
@creativemary, wise people think alike 😇 I think as we get a little older, time seems to fly by quickly.
Wish you a successful and joyful 2022 as well!
Thank you!
Welcome to Ladiesofhive contest #63 nhé Thao. Bài dự thi đầu tiên hoành tráng và xuất sắc quá.
You're an independent and hardworking person and I'm sure you will complete your plan very soon❤️ Every time we spend time with someone we care about, it is worth the effort and time put in. I love your definition of wealth.
Great post and thanks for the entry ❤️