When it’s time for bed, our dog literally sprints into her crate. She will even push through a few doors to get there as quickly as possible. She does this because she gets a dog treat every time we crate her. She loves treats.
As you know, a crate is a cage.
(This isn’t our dog. It’s a picture I found on Google
because I was too lazy to take a picture of her!)
This means our dog runs full speed into a cage just to get a dog treat.
For some reason, I have the same physical response every time I watch this happen. I honestly get a little queasy and the reason why is because I watch her quickly trade her freedom for food. Maybe, one of the reasons why I have this response is because she is well fed. She gets three meals a day, plus treats. Yet, she still runs into a cage at night for one more treat.
Granted, her crate is very large and it is very comfy for her. She has a soft blanket and a nice fan to keep her cool. However, the crate still restricts her freedom.
Each night as I pat her head and give her the treat in her crate, I think about people…
We do the exact same thing for money. We sprint off to work five or six days a week to get a paycheck.
We don’t run into cages like dogs do, but we do run into cubicles and offices. Our cages are slightly larger than our dogs, but they do the exact same thing… they restrict us.
We make a choice to restrict our freedom for a treat. Our treat isn’t a dog biscuit. Its money.
Now, I realize things are a little different for us. We don’t have all of our needs taken care of by someone else. We’ve got bills to pay. We’ve got other things to worry about. However, there is a similarity that I just can’t seem to shake.
My dog could have more freedom, IF she had the ability to be indifferent to food.
We could have more freedom for ourselves, IF we had the ability to be indifferent to money.
“Who is your master? Anyone who has control over things upon which you’ve set your heart, or over things which you seek to avoid.” Epictetus
For most of us, money is our master and we quickly trade our time for more money. And sadly, many people trade their health, relationships, and souls for more treats money.
Why? Aren’t we any smarter than this?
You become indifferent to money by creating a monthly income independent of work.
This isn’t rocket science.
