We are hard wired to be social beings, it's easy to say, I march to my own drummer, I don't care what other people think. But deep down that's not really true. We all do crave the respect, love admiration of those. We respect unless you're a complete sociopath, and you really don't care at all about other people. It's only natural, it's human to care what other people think of you. But many people go too far.
And it destroys not only their productivity, but their happiness. big tip here is you've got to stop listening to what other people say you should be doing with your life. Many people just blindly take a job because it has a good benefits package and next thing you know, they have a house and a mortgage and two cars and car payments, and all sorts of consumer debt for more and more staff and they never stop to ask themselves. Is this stuff making me happy, and they've got the boat that they never use, but they've got to pay the slip fees every single month. And the mortgage on the boat. Don't fall into that trap.
I'm not against the step. I'm not an anti materialist. I have a lot of nice stuff myself. But you can't let the stuff rule your life. Don't let other people define what it is for you to be a productive human being. You might be a lot happier without stuff and living in a studio apartment, and a large or a small city and spending your life doing things being out in your community out creating or not experiencing life music or art or theater, and not having any stuff not having any car or lots of furniture.
Don't let me decide for you. But the point is, don't let other people Decide for you. Now, I've been fortunate and I had enough time to make up for previous misfortune. So I have a lot of stuff now. But I still try to not listen to what other people say, I need and what I should be doing. So, for example, I think I mentioned to you earlier, I only have one car in my family.
My wife knows how to drive. I know how to drive. We live out in the suburbs, most of the time, he has to drive anywhere. Everyone else out here has two or three or four cars. I only have one sometimes people tell me I'm crazy. What's wrong with you?
What's with only one car. Reality is I don't like to drive. My wife doesn't like to drive we only need one car once every six weeks or so. I may have to take an Uber to the train station or somewhere that's infinitely easier for me to do and it frees up my time. And resources do other things I like. That's the it's not that you have to get rid of one of your cars.
It's that you really give thought to what works for you what will make you productive, what will make you happy? What will allow you to spend your time the way you want to as opposed to doing what other people want you to do.