This week’s travel quote comes from Jaime Lyn Beatty, an American actress and singer. She is best known for appearing in the theatrical production A Very Potter Musical.
Growing up in America, there was an underlying understanding that success in life meant success at work; that if I wanted to be happy I had to have a well-paying job so that I could by things, send my future children to college, and have good health care.
Obviously, most people would agree that a successful life isn’t just about these things, but you’d be amazed at how deep this mythology digs into the average American’s mentality. I cannot speak with certainty, but I imagine the same holds true in other capitalist countries.
Jaime Lyn Beatty, the source of this week's travel quote
Great quote for the week Andrew! I used to have that mentality that being successful means having a high paying job that would allow me to buy anything I want. I now realized after getting into personal growth and traveling a lot more is that this isn’t the case. Yes a nice car would be wonderful but if I have to spend 50 hours a week at a job I don’t like to get it, then it’s definitely not worth it.
Don’t get me wrong though, I’m definitely not saying money isn’t important. Just don’t work at job you don’t like to buy material things, work at it to escape it!
Author
Thanks for the kind words, Duy! As you said, money is certainly important and it can do a lot of good (charity, funds to travel, health care), but it isn’t the end-all-bell-all to fulfillment in life. Thankfully, I think that a growing number of people are realizing this (thanks in no small part to people like yourself who write about such things), and are instead living their lives according to their values rather than those of our mainstream, über capitalistic societies.