You may ask what beware the stuff success curse means?

We wanted to write about beware of the stuff success curse because when Ryan did give me his post How To Succeed Surprises Most People, I was thinking about what success to people means? Most of you may say to make money. It is ok, but what else? As I was with my young friend (Pota)Rahul at that time and I asked him, because my perception of success may be different. 

Because, in my time, there were not all the Millionaire and success-driven slogans around. Work had a different value and money more than only a digit on a screen. Also, in the past, the general idea of success was just more attainable. 

Rahul likes to travel and said I would use the money to travel. It is his version of a successful life right now to travel and experience. However, I asked him what do you think other young people would do? Buying a car, buying furniture, buying stuff is what most would do first, he said. But a successful life is not about gathering things.

Stuff can become a curse if you are attached to it. I know this from my experience in a life of many changes and movements. I thought to ask Ryan about his view. Since he is freely traveling the world and enjoys his life, I think he is not attached to stuff.

There is nothing wrong with [people] possessing riches. The wrong comes from riches possessing [people].– Billy Graham

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.– Epictetus

Here is another guest post from our friend Ryan Biddulph

Thank you, Ryan, for sharing your experience with us.

Beware the Stuff Success Curse

10 years ago, I desired to own mansions, flashy cars, and nice clothes.

Today, I have spent the past 8 years circling the globe. I own my laptop, phone, some clothes, money and a financial investment or two. I own no house and do not own a car. Therefore I am utterly free of all stuff-attachments weighing down most of humanity. What changed my mind? Why did I go from desiring mountains of STUFF to circling the globe as a full-time digital nomad? I realized something; I fell prey to the “stuff success curse”.

Be like the children

Basically, as little kids, we care less about stuff, really. This is our natural self. No sentient being craves or desires to own stuff because stuff slows you down, or weighs you down when you get attached to it.

Beware the Stuff Success Curse

Little kids just want to have a fun time. Children want to enjoy fun experiences. But adults and society, in general, try to program kids with the idea that accumulating as much stuff as possible is the main goal in life. Fools program you to believe success is piling up as much stuff or things as humanly possible. Pile up money.  Or pile up mansions. Pile up cars. And Pile up clothes.

Of course, these fools never tell you the curse of attaching yourself to this stuff, or, the curse of working incredibly hard, to acquire things: things ONLY create temporary happiness. After the temporary good feeling emotions, your feelings bottom out, and you return to your normal life and normal vibe. For most humans – who lack wisdom, poise, serenity, and calm – the normal life and normal vibe is fear-pain, which feels horribly depressing.

There is nothing wrong with people possessing riches. The wrong comes from riches possessing people.– Billy Graham

I do not advise you to renounce a worldly life like some sadhguru sitting in a jungle cave unless your heart tells you to take this route of the sage. Receiving money, a house and a car for rendering service, doing what you LOVE doing, is totally OK. But deeply desiring things and believing how acquiring stuff-things makes you successful is the most asinine thing human beings do. Observe a squirrel piling up acorns before wintertime. Does he brag about his huge pile of acorns to other squirrels? Does he feel successful because he piled up hundreds of acorns? No! He is just a squirrel being a squirrel.

Beware the Stuff Success Curse

Money and houses and cars are the byproduct of success

If you follow your passion and devote your life to mastering some skill that renders useful service to humanity, every dollar you make, from 1 buck to 1 billion bucks, feels like a bonus, or extra, or icing on the cake. The joy was in the experience of having fun helping people and having fun bringing the world together. Money and houses and cars are not evidence of success BUT money and houses and cars are the byproduct of someone who has lovingly served humanity from a fun, passionate, energy.

Success is in having fun *giving* and *connecting humanity*, NOT in spending precious years of your life obsessing over getting stuff.

I circle the globe because doing so feels fun, freeing and sometimes scary, to me. Leaving my comfort zone by traveling the world liberates me. Circling the globe does not make me a success or failure. I just do what’s fun and bring the world together by sharing how similar we really are, even amid our differences. Why did I change my goals from piling up stuff to circling the globe? Defining myself and my life by how big a number I could build on a screen (money) or how many hunks of metal I owned (cars) or how many hunks of wood I purchased (houses) seemed like a mental illness to me.

Remember; squirrels never brag about stacking up acorns; it’s just being a squirrel, doing as squirrels do. Infinitely gifted humans with limitless potential can never be defined by numbers, metal or wood; we ultimately live the most fun, freeing, useful, loving life by BEING whatever our gut-intuition tells us to BE, just like a squirrel being a squirrel.

Success is trusting your gut

Success is trusting your gut as it directs you to live your deepest passion, your greatest joy, your most pulsating fun. THAT is success. Aim for this life of fun, freedom, service and enriching experiences. Guess what? Worldly success will flow to you eventually, but you won’t be weighed down by attachment to these things. The work-life will be the reward. All else will feel like extra, a bonus, a cherry on top.

What is your experience? Do you agree?

I agree with Ryan, life is better to be enjoyed, full of experience,  unattached to possessions that tie us and take our freedom. Beware the Stuff Success Curse!

Instead of buying stuff better invest in yourself. Ryan Biddulph inspires with his 100 plus eBooks, courses, paperbacks, audiobooks and blog at Blogging From Paradise.

“There is no more profitable investment than investing in yourself. It is the best investment you can make; you can never go wrong with it.- Roy T. Bennett

How to Become a Successful Blogger After Starting Your Blog from Zero

“The singular difference between success and true success is those who achieved true success did not pursue success, they were driven by it. They were those who followed their strengths, they were those who spent each heartbeat to proffer solutions to humanity’s problems, they were those who lived a highly simple and effective life.” Sesan Kareem

Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. –Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Success is not in the possession of multitudes of dreams; it is in the art of processing dreams into multiple realities.”- Israelmore Ayivor

Tony Robbins: Money Doesn’t Equal Happiness. Here’s What Does

See also Why Being Generous Accelerates Your Success

and Simplify Your Life And The Benefit Of Being A Minimalist

What is your experience?  What would you prefer?

Please share your opinion.

 

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