The Summer 2004 issue of Yes! Magazine asks “What is the good life?” Some of the articles are available online, including one by David Myers that seeks to discredit once and for all the notion that money can make you happy:
Watch television, and you’ll learn that the good life is in a new car, a cold beer, or a new drug. Look at surveys, and Americans say they want more money. But look inside at what actually gives you joy, and the good life may be closer than you thought.
Alex
The usual script goes like this: "learn to do things to work to be paid to buy things to get pleasure".
If you turn it the other way round things change slightly (some 180 degrees).
An easy way to do this would be to draw several vertical lines across the page. First column: training. Second column: job. Third column: money. Fourth column: things you buy. Fifth column: pleasure, joy, happiness.
Fill it in forward and then backwards. Link items across the page. Recalculate your life.
(I guess this can be done as a family experience too.)
Lucas