I’ve been tossing around this idea of how our personal conversations have devolved into an un-inspiring, spirit-staining exhange of our recent consumptions as proof or in lieu of our truly valuable accomplishments.

I may be lighting the fuse on a whole series of blog posts here, but if you’ll indulge me on this one, I’ll keep it brief… for now 🙂

Basically, the premise that the act of consumption carries the assumptive value that we’ve personally created something of worth or wealth, is to me, an absolute genius triumph of marketing, tragically…

I do not however believe in a purchase as a creation, myself… Anymore.

Back in the day, before my financial paradigm shift, I used to believe silly things, like: “If someone has a really nice car/house/phone/whatever, they have money.” And seeing who had what kind of stuff, could tell you about their financial well being, AND the kind of stuff that I had, indicated my financial well being… Whelp, that’s just backwards.

You see Money, is the indicator of having money. Moreover, the ability to create Money above and beyond the chosen cost of lifestyle, so that the extra money is available to create more income, is a much more accurate measure of financial wealth.
(By this measure, I personally, am Not currently financially wealthy, more on that later) 

And so therefore, the consumption of a “something” does not necessarily equal wealth at all, in this age of still readily available credit. “Buying” something these days can have very little to do with “Owning.”

So, back to the beginning of this blog. What do I mean by the devolution of our personal conversations?

I find myself many times, talking and relating to other people about the items I’ve recently consumed or plan on consuming or wish I could consume or consumed last year. This can be anything from Stuff that was bought, to Food, to Vacations, to Post-Secondary Education. Sometimes it’s sharing in pride, or warning another about a mistaken purchase, or convincing ourselves that life will be better when we just get to buy that “_(fill in the blank)__”.

And what is wrong with talking to our friends, family, or co-workers about Things that we’re bringing into our lives?

I think somewhere along the way, we’ve forgotten that we are actually constructed by God, in his image, to be magnificent Creators. And Create we do! I believe there is much more valuable conversation to be shared between us as fellow human beings about what we are actually Creating in our lives, than the crap we bought lately.

And what would real Creations be? Personally, right now, I’m partial to the word “Overcome”, there are a few personal demons that I am right now working on creating solutions to Overcome. And to me, that is a wonderful creation that is conversation worthy! How about others though? Creations could be solutions and experiences in growth in areas like; personal goals, health, relationships, career/entrepreneurial, spiritual, emotional, academic, or self-awareness, just to name a few.

Truthfully, I love discussing topics like these, and love listening to others share of themselves too. I am much more interested in the human condition, than how well someone was sold a purchase, by a well-funded and clever marketing campaign.

So, I hope I’ve made my point that people are wonderful resources of compassion and encouragement and wisdom. If we can get to the real meat of what is going on in our real lives, and not just our consumer-ness, then we’re really adding to the collective pool.

From where I’m at today, in all the changes I’ve experienced, inside and out, I could really give a rip about my status as a proper consumer.

And speaking of right now, I’ve graduated into a new workshop series in my FAA training, where the final questionnaire is the first thing they ask you to read.

Through this course of several weeks/possibly months of study, hard work, coaching, gritty deep emotional digging and lots of prayer; I’m supposed to have some answer to these questions and more, at the end:

• I know what I am naturally great at
• I know what gives me meaning and purpose
• I know how I think and interact with the world
• I know why I exist
• I know where I am headed
• I know what I must do to get there
• I know what keeps me on track
• I know what will prevent me from getting there

Now, being able to confidently answer some of these questions, will make for some seriously stimulating conversation! I welcome any kind of invitation to coffee or lunch or a skype video call, if you’d like to chat about the little things in life, like “why I exist.”

I’m fascinated, just imagining the possiblities… and then when all this culminates to me being able to afford some stuff. I’ll go ahead and get that too… but please Stop Me, if I want to have a big ole conversation about a new SUV or a leather sectional. Thanks!

Sincerely,

Aaron Nichols