Luxury is Operating Outside Reality

We have all inherited a reality created by other people. As Tacitus once said,

" ..you are not looking up to the laws of heaven, you are looking down, to the laws of dead men. "

These dead men created not the rules, those are dictated by human nature, but the structures that control and govern the societies in which we live. They created the institutions, and organized labor to their benefit not yours. If you are in charge of making up the rules, would you honestly give others an advantage over your own self? No because human nature is generally self-interested. In case you had any doubts, we are here to tell you that, no, life is not fair. That is always true if you are playing by the rules, those made up for the benefit of others. You cannot remake the inherited reality but there are ways to travel through it to your own benefit.

Tenants to Operate Outside Reality

Step sideways and move slowly through the matrix and you will see a lot of opportunities that others miss. You will be able to connect the dots outside the lines. Here are four ideas to operate outside reality. Consider each tenant a puzzle or level that you must solve in order to bend reality to your benefit.

One -Disconnect income from your time and your effort

We are trained from a young age to equate rewards with effort and this framework primes us to unconsciously accept that we must exchange time for money.

Time and money are related but not in the way you think. Exchanging your time (your life, actually -time is all we have) and your effort for money is one of the most inefficient trades you can make for the long term. In the short term, exchanging your time for money can be quite beneficial because it is a very fast way to earn a decent chunk of change.

The labor market, by priming us with rewards for effort, beguiles us into a false competition where we give our best and try to achieve the highest. This seems mutually beneficial but on the whole, the value we provide is much greater than the remuneration we receive. Otherwise businesses would not turn a profit. Of course, many people benefit from this arrangement and if you are able to achieve a lot, you will be rewarded but not everyone wins this competition and those lower down in the hierarchy are required to provide more labor and output for their lower pay.

Money grows over time. When we invest money, we disconnect income from both our time and our effort. When we earn royalties, we disconnect income from time. When we buy a business, even if we pay someone else the majority of the profits to operate it, we disconnect income from our effort. Unless you have inherited a trust fund, some effort is required. That may be the restraint to invest instead of spend, create a product that adds value to people's lives, or to evaluate the prospects of a business and select an appropriate business manager. The key here is that by selectively applying your efforts, you can generate income that continues indefinitely. The standard reality would have you give maximal effort and maximal time day, in and day out.

Two-Disconnect lovability from 'performance'

You deserve love because you exist.

Many of us grew up performing for love; in households with multiple children, we even unconsciously took on roles in order to compete for attention. Perhaps you chose to be the loud one, the funny one, the good one, the baby, the responsible one, the trouble maker, the pretty one, the smart one, or some combination of these. Do all only-children have multiple personalities, then, or were they accepted as they were? Most parents were out exchanging their time for money and they had little left to give after a day's work. You were fighting for scraps because the feast had been moved elsewhere.

Perhaps even as an adult, you are still performing your role and seeking the approval of your family, friends, acquaintances and loved ones. This ends now. You are far more lovable than the things you do, or give to others. Your worth is intrinsic and does not depend on your talents, skills or achievements. You are not a clown, and you don't need any applause. Be a self-sovereign individual, love yourself, and know you have the support of the universe.

Three -Disentangle thoughts from action

Thinking about something is not the same as doing it. As the reality on offer depends evermore on technology, it can be difficult not to conflate observing with participating, planning with execution. We can read and watch videos and think about things all day. We can even take it off screen and into the world by talking about ideas with friends and family, the old fashioned way. This is not the same as taking action.

Even taking action is fraught by advertising. For example, if one wanted to write a book, one could go out and buy a fine ball point pen and pretty notebook but that is not the same as publishing a novel. Or, if one wanted to camp, they could purchase a whole list of items beginning with a tent and ending with sporks but that is not the same thing as actually sleeping outside in the woods. Even buying seeds and building raised beds is not the same as actually gardening. Advertising hijacks our impulses and desires making us imagine that having is the same as doing.

Someone who wanted to garden would plant seeds in an old teacup they drilled a hold in and turned into a pot. A person who wanted to commune with nature would walk into the woods with a cloak and a knife. An author would write at the kitchen table on unlined printer paper with a golf pencil. Of course, there are improvements to be made in these situations but doing the thing, and taking the action is what matters. Even if you fail, you will have learned quite a bit about the activity and yourself. Then you can better prepare for the next attempt. The first step of any journey is out of your head and into reality.

Four -Create

Creation is the highest of all personal expressions. Whatever is created, creation is the ultimate luxury because it signifies a unique expression of ourselves. With a free mind and a calm physiology, enormous possibilities unfold along with the means to explore them. This expansive inner world is the hotbed of creativity.

We all have a hole in our soul. It is not a flaw but it is dark and mysterious. Treat it like a microscope, magnify your flaws and hangup and you will yourself into a deficit but, if you use it as a telescope, it can broaden your horizons. The hole is there by design. It is your connection to the divine. It is actually not a hole to be filled up but a spring and your job is to coax from its depths your unique powers of creativity and expression.

We do not require more time and more effort to obtain more money and we do not need to earn love. We can study and research but taking action is still the only thing that matters in this world. Operating outside reality is having the awareness and discipline to unlock the gates around us, sidestep pitfalls and access our inner powers of creation.