Boodaism
Two years ago I ran out of money.
This was different than being in debt, I mean I literally exhausted all my financial resources to the point where the gas light was on in my car and I was wondering “do I have enough money to get gas?”
I felt afraid and excited.
“Excited?” I thought to myself, “am I some sort of fucked up thrill seeker who gets himself into these situations on purpose?” I don’t know. What I did notice was that the feeling of running out of money felt like an adventure.
I always thought that running out of money wasn’t like climbing mountains, or bicycling across Europe, or spending two weeks as a homeless person as a social experiment. But it turns out, it can be. In fact, it’s exhilarating. Exhilaration seems to happen because there’s risk involved.
Danger, fear and the courage that rises above the fear. All these elements come together to create an adventure, and I was experiencing that around money.
Skydiving is exhilarating because you could pancake your body on the ground at 120 mph.
Starting a business and pouring all your savings into it is exhilarating because it could fail and you might be left with nothing.
Asking out a beautiful woman is exhilarating because you might get rejected and feel like shit.
Don’t we want a life that’s exhilarating?
I’m not saying “do we want a life that goes well”, I’m saying “are we willing to put ourself in situations that scare us so we can experience the rush of overcoming our fear?”
If we were really honest, we would raise our hands and say “fuck yes, I want that”, and I’m no different. In fact, when I see my bank account start to get low there’s a little voice inside my head that says “what if we ran out of money… wouldn’t that be cool?!?”
It’s the same voice that got excited after I got my wallet, passport and iPhone stolen on a remote Island in Greece, and you know what? That voice was right. It turned out to be the most beautiful day of my life. Would I have asked some Greek guy to steal my stuff so I could experience that? Hell no, but it happened, and it was amazing.
I’m not saying you should try and run out of money, but maybe you’re like me and you find yourself doing it unconsciously, and it’s kind of fun. You’re not weird, or incapable, you’re just a thrill seeker.
As a result of running out of money I moved forward with business opportunities that I would have never done had I had a nice financial cushion. I was in the world hustling and it felt great. Oh, and it felt shitty sometimes but I reminded myself that fear comes with the financial adventure package.
Fear comes with adventure.
We go through life avoiding fear and then wonder why we’re not having any fun. A life without fear is like food without spices. You can eat it and you won’t die, but how are you supposed to get excited about it?
Choose your own adventure, and it doesn’t have to be money but if it is, why not try and enjoy the ride? The ride includes fear, so don’t think that you can avoid it. If you avoided it, it would be like vacationing to an all-inclusive resort in the Bahamas and calling it traveling.
The truth is, all of us are already on an adventure of some kind. Do you want to know where the adventure is? Look for your fear. You’ll find the adventure right next to it.
