The Four Things You Need to Do Anything

Sorry, you can’t find them at Walmart. As nice as that would’ve been.

The four things you need to do anything are simple and hard to hold onto: time, energy, desire, and means.

Time is the biggest tradeable asset of our society, hands down. Every job requires a certain number of hours you need to work, putting some dollar value to every hour or year of your life.

Energy comes close after that. You could have all the time in the world, but if you have no energy to spend that time effectively then you’re not left with much.

We’re all beings with free will, so the desire to do this is important too. If you don’t want something good, it’s not likely you’ll go after it.

And having all three lacks only the fourth component, the means, to actually complete this quartet of victory. I mean, Leonardo da Vinci had the time, energy, and desire to invent the helicopter and solar power, but he didn’t have the means to bring it to life, which robbed us all of airborne Renaissance shenanigans and green tech before the Mayflower left England.

How You Get Them

If you don’t have one or more of them already, it’s going to require sacrificing something. Toni Morrison decided she wanted to write, and sacrificed time in the morning in exchange for time to write. Rihanna decided she wanted to launch an inclusive cosmetics line, and sacrificed energy for creating new music in exchange for energy to create Fenty Beauty*. Desire is more fickle and can’t easily be traded, but it’s easier to gain desire for it when you devote time and energy into making the rewards as real as possible. Would you use your newfound wealth to go back to school? Sign up for your college of choice’s newsletter. Would you use it for an epic vacation? Start planning a little of it now.

And then we reach the means, the hardest of them all to get. I know this is the hardest because everyone sacrifices one of the three to become a person of at least some means. “Means,” in our society, is money. Without these means, these resources, we’re stressed.

The most common denominator separating people is lack of resources, or lack of means. The US is more capitalist-focused than practically any other. What’s the resource many lack? Money.

Yes, the system is stacked against the lower class. I do not have a sweeping plan to eradicate it here. What I do have is education to share with everyone else, and the means to deal practically in our not-so-great financial times.

The Effect of Gaining All Four

The goal is to function. The goal is to thrive.

I’m living life to the fullest because I removed that financial stress. The other three things – time, energy, desire – are all there for me because I have the means to “purchase” them. I put “purchase” in quotations because I don’t get my time and energy and desire from spending my means. No, I get the three because I know the money’s there if I truly need it, all invested so they’re making more and more money for me in the meantime.

It’s because of that money I get my free time back – I don’t need to waste a minute worrying about my future or my financial position, and if I do think about it it’s time spent efficiently. My energy is back because I’m excited for the day instead of dreading it. My desire to do things completes the quartet, and it’s all helped me to do wonderful things like explore the US, save for my brother’s college education, and write to my heart’s content.

It’s all to get me closer to that mountaintop, and where my ideal life lies. Think through and name what your ideal life consists of. Mine is settling down in my dream home after publishing a book and traveling the world, in that order. Another person’s dream life could be kicking ass as a top lawyer in a certain city, where they live in a spacious penthouse with their significant other. Yet another person’s dream life could be seasonal travel to different parts of the country and spending the maximum amount of time with their kids. All are good. I use the term “dream” because, for many, it seems ephemeral, like something that is extremely unlikely to solidify.

Keep thinking like that, and it will be. But even if you reach half of that, you’ll be a hell of a lot happier. I’d still be delighted if I could get a home in my dream location after traveling some of the world; as for the book, I can always self-publish online. My second person would still be happy doing what she loves in the courtroom and having a great home life. My third person would still be happy with small trips to see their kids and maintaining those close bonds. It’s still worth pursuing.

The most important reason it’s still worth pursuing is because that’s all part of the process. I’m sorry to say this won’t happen overnight. It won’t happen in the course of a week, or a month, or even a year. I did say at the beginning it would take time 😉 Anything worth pursuing does. All four of these things get amplified after you have enough of it. You’re naturally happy. You’re proud and at peace. Even if you’re not at that mountaintop just yet, you’re higher than you’ve ever been and in a sunnier place than you’ve ever felt.

If you’ve ever seen this stupid graphic:

you can laugh about it. You’re on the path to financial success. That will not be you.

*Yes, I’m still salty she didn’t release that album. She really played us all.