Everything has a value, not least someone’s time on the planet. How can you put a value on something that is finite and cannot be reclaimed once it has been spent? It’s a difficult task to say the least – because there is no benchmark.

Value is largely based on belief, your own personal belief. This belief is not fixed, it is always evolving along with your experience in this game of life. Those that are living their dream and earn a living from it often say they cannot believe they get paid for what they do.

Others who feel stuck in jobs they hate are trading their time for some future fulfilment, or more often than not, the avoidance of some sort of future loss. Commonly, the mortgage or rent is at the root of this fear. If the rent is not paid then a vital human need is taken away:  shelter. If a wage is not earned then more is at risk: food, warmth and shelter.

The route to happiness is not just the accumulation of funds for the acquisition and protection of your basic human needs; not even the accumulation of funds for some sort of fulfilment, be it happiness or your particular perception of success sometime in the future. No, the key to winning at the game of life is how you experience your journey through time in the here and now – this very moment.

There is no future except as a thought. The future doesn’t exist in the here and now. There is no past either, except as a thought. The past exists only in the mind for either reference or entertainment. Sure, have a future in mind to use as a beacon but don’t be so laser-focused as to miss the panorama of the present.

Think about this if you are stuck in an office in a job you hate, or if tomorrow morning you have to drive a truckload of widgets – of mysterious purpose – to somewhere you don’t even care about. Why are you really doing it and what is it really costing you?

Me?

“Commonly known as Paul Shepherd is a self-governing living being of nature

I seek to tread my own path using happiness as my compass,

free from the effects of external circumstances and results,

without restriction or prejudice, in a state of gratitude and abundance

and to leave every experience, situation, encounter and passing moment

in a richer state by having passed through it.”