The money. The house. The cars.

The luxury. The so-called freedom.

All the toys you can play with, and more money than you know what to do with.

Sounds nice, right?

There’s a lot of pleasure there. A lot of conveniences. Much to enjoy. Enough to make some inspired and many envious.

But, have you thought about what that lifestyle comes with?

Oftentimes, with the ways we’ve been raised, we’re quick to look at something and immediately judge it.

We don’t take the time to think deeply, to look under the hood, and to truly examine what it’s all about.

It’s the easy thing to do. Except, it’s not the intelligent thing to do.

See, because this universe is boundless and infinity complex, we can never really know what’s in front of us, or what comes with the things we think we want.

Right before our eyes, we experienced a real epidemic that took the lives of hundreds of thousands.

But, at the same time, it exposed the flaws in our systems and gave mother nature the opportunity to heal itself.

On the surface, it was devastating. Looking deeper though, there was some beauty behind it.

This idea is referred to as the Principle of Polarity: Everything has two poles, and everything has its opposite. Everything “is” and “isn’t” at the same time. All truths are but half-truths and every truth is half false.

Simply put, there are two sides to everything.

And the trouble is, the human mind can only understand through comparison. We need one to understand the other.

This is a limitation because we often get caught up with the side that comes with the story that’s most appealing.

We’re quick to jump to conclusions.

“This lifestyle is… This person is… This country… This career…”

We’re all guilty of it to some degree.

That’s why it’s important to really examine what we think we want—especially when it comes to lifestyle design.

Sometimes, the thing we think we want could come with other things that would completely tear us apart.

Other times, the things we’ve written off could bring us the genuine satisfaction we crave.

Really, in the end, it’s all relative, and we won’t really know until we have the experience.

But, if we’re smart enough, we can study, do some research, look at the lives of others, and come up with a pretty good guess.

For instance, would you still want that career if it came with burdens and responsibilities that would completely weigh you down?

Would you still want that lifestyle if it made it increasingly more difficult to trust the loyalty of those around you?

How about the fame if it meant you’d have no peace?

Success can be as destructive as failure—sometimes more.

And if your happiness depends on money and what you have, you will never be happy with yourself.

“I wish everyone could get rich and famous and everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that’s not the answer”
— Jim Carrey