Who was it that first glorified hard work as virtuous? I don’t know (if you do please comment) but give it some thought. It was most likely someone with a personal and/or financial interest in the outcome of said hard work.

If hard work were the key to success, every laborer would be wealthy, happy and satisfied with their lot in life. Can we agree that isn’t reality? So what is it about money coming easy that spooks some people? I have my thoughts on it, which include public schooling and tradition.

The history of public schooling is absolutely fascinating (and will likely tick you off if you’re not aware of it yet). I highly recommend going to John Taylor Gatto’s website and reading his book, “The Underground History of American Education.” You can read it there for free, or buy it on Amazon, or check your local library for a copy as it’s big and pricey.

We think it was an altruistic endeavor to help people improve their lives but the opposite it true. And don’t take my word for it, go read at least some of the book and see. There are other books like “Dumbing Us Down” also by Gatto, his most recent “Weapons of Mass Instruction,” and “How Children Learn” and” How Children Fail” by John Holt that support the argument that the purpose of schooling is not to enhance our natural abilities, but to mute them. To homogenize us and snuff out individuality and creativity. Sound extreme? Read the books and judge for yourself.

Then we have tradition. Your childhood might have been something like mine in that I was always told “If you work hard and get good grades, you can go to college and work hard for a degree and then you will be able to work hard and make a good living” or some version of that. I was also told I could be anything I wanted to be. It was confusing because if I could do that, why couldn’t my parents? They certainly weren’t working their dream jobs. We barely got by some months…so what gives?

And we can’t blame our parents because they were just repeating what their parents told them, and theirs before them. Education and hard work are the answers to making a living. But really, who just wants to “make a living?” Who reading this has never thought there was more to life than that? Soooo much more to themselves than just what they do for a living? Yet it permeates our society. What’s usually the first thing you ask someone when you meet a new person? “What do you do?” It’s ingrained in us from an early age that our value comes from what we do, our work, our job, our career.

Guess what? The wealthy among us don’t work for a living. They are the one’s who for whatever reason resisted the brainwashing of their schooling (or went to private schools, were home schooled or unschooled maybe?) and emerged without the belief that working for a living was their only option. These individuals start businesses and hire those of us who did get successfully brainwashed, to work for them. And so off we go to work every day, giving our all to some heartless corporation or demanding boss, (I know there are some nice bosses, too, but you’re still being bossed yes?) and daydreaming about what we will do next weekend with our “free time.” If you’re not required to work overtime, of course.

Now that’s livin’!         Ahem….

Well, when you’re ready to think outside that box, take a look at this cash gifting program. And subscribe to my feed or join my list. This is a new blog and I have a lot more to say about hard work, where money and abundance really comes from, and how to stop being a slave to a time clock, so I’ll be posting regularly.

Warmest,

Tracy