Imagine craving a toy.
Not a regular toy.
A very expensive toy that is unlike any other toy. It can be any type of toy your child-self would have infinitely craved. You decide.
Your parents agree to let you own this item. But only if you work towards owning it, doing a long list of chores that will take more than a month to complete.
Days and days you toil away, working towards this magical toy. Again, this can be any type of toy you could imagine, let your mind run wild.
For weeks you continue working: Cleaning, fixing, assembling, organizing, scrubbing, mowing, spraying, wiping.
You have laser-like focus, visualizing ownership, seeing yourself playing with this device in pure bliss.
This visual allows you to bypass all of the effort you would usually be whining about. You are a well oiled machine who industriously works with purpose.
You think,
I can’t wait. This is going to be awesome. I can’t wait to play with this toy. I can’t wait to show my friends. They’ll never believe me. This will be the best year ever.
You mow the lawn. You clean the kitchen. You polish the tables. You organize the study. You clean the backyard. You get perfect grades.
Your relentless march continues and finally you arrive, you cross the line and fulfill your end of the bargain.
Your parents drive you to the store.
You sprint through the store, grabbing the box. Your parents pay for it.
You leave.
You go home.
You begin playing with this toy, having a blast.
But - within days - you realize - the toy isn’t all that exciting.
This thing - that you have built up in your mind and worked towards, that you have attached so much value to - has suddenly become so normal.
What once glowed holy in your mind now sits cold and inanimate in your hands.
You’d accomplished so much in your journey to get this toy. You’d completed so many tasks. Only for the reward to slide through your hands like water.
The problem with attaining wealth is that all the shiny objects it brings you, that inspired your mountainous efforts, suddenly lose their shine.
It’s like a man who slays dragons to take their gold.
His entire existence revolved around preparing to defeat each dragon and then going into its cave and taking its mounds of gold.
But then, one day, he slays the last dragon.
The gold suddenly and inexplicably becomes meaningless.
And that’s when the man finally realizes that his purpose was never to get gold. His purpose was to slay dragons.
What will you do after you slay your last dragon?
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