Consumption v contribution

Consumption is part of daily life. You need food and energy to stay alive.

Still, a focus on consumption presents two challenges:

• You become inward-looking. Generally, consumption satisfies “I, me, mine”.
• You will unlikely achieve Purposeful Prosperity, which requires you to use your wealth to benefit others rather than yourself.

Allowing your consumption to outpace your contribution and the difference you make in the world is an easy mistake on the road to Purposeful Prosperity.

Measuring your consumption and contribution

While prioritising contribution over consumption is central to Purposeful Prosperity, it is, unfortunately, difficult to monitor and manage. Instinct and gut feeling will tell you much, but experience suggests that the answer is not always correct.

The alternative is to gear up your inner accountant and reduce it to a monetary value.

• Valuing your consumption should be straightforward, especially if you keep detailed expenditure records.
• Valuing your contribution is more difficult, especially if some of what you contribute is done on spec and without charge. Think in terms of hourly rates or value added. If you run a business, you might want to allocate the proportion of your turnover that makes a difference.

However, for most people (me included), this sort of accountancy work is a bridge too far. The alternative is to find suitable proxies for consumption and contribution.

Control your consumption

It is easy to let your consumption run away with itself, especially if you succumb to the ‘3Bs’.

• Your parents and teachers hammer beliefs about money into you early on. These beliefs stick with you and colour your consumption in insidious ways. Question them always (and remember that your beliefs about money may lead to frugality as well as profligacy).
• Commentators promote their values and judgements to you through their blogs (which include videos, podcasts, news items, op-eds, etc) and can influence your consumption and contribution. As a rule of thumb, question their agenda to see if it aligns with yours.
• Banners are an all-encompassing term for advertising. It pays to advertise, and a well-constructed ad should hit your sweet spot, but ask yourself if you need it and will still use it in six months or a year.

Value your contribution.

Purposeful Prosperity is values-driven. Given the difficulty of putting a monetary value on your contribution, use your values and stories as a proxy.

• Your values are the bedrock of your beliefs, desires and intentions. Work them out and stick to them. If you live by values encompassing Purposeful Prosperity, you will automatically contribute more than you consume.
• Fact-checking is all the rage these days, so fact-check your contributions by recounting the stories of the differences you have made to the lives of others. The more, the merrier.

Finally, remember that purposeful Prosperity suffers when consumption gets in the way of making a difference in the world.

Your Next Steps

Reflection time

Here are three statements for you to reflect on:

• “I don’t contribute much or make a big difference in the world, but my life is meaningful.”
• “I know how much I consume even though I don’t keep accurate expenditure records.”
• “I have beliefs, desires and intentions, but I am not sure I can articulate the values behind them, if any.”

Join the conversation, and let me know what you think.

Join the conversation

Share your thoughts, comments, and reflections in the comments section below and forward the post to a friend.

Taking it further

Attributions and references

Photo attribution

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Audio link

https://audio.com/jeremy_deedes/audio/consumption/

Related posts

Why having a purpose to life is important

Look to Patagonia for Purposeful Prosperity

How to secure purposeful prosperity.

ABOUT

I work with ambitious, family-oriented professionals transitioning to independent consultants to create a 3 to 5-year holistic plan so that they grow wealthy, make a difference and find meaning.

My clients are aged 35-50. They are in a long-term relationship with family and parents who are supportive but ageing. They wrestle with personal and financial responsibilities and dream of more control, wealth, time and purpose.

If this excites you, you are coachable, willing to change, and want to stop going around in circles, then find out more at jeremydeedes.com

Then, take your next step and explore your way forward with a Mapmaker, a one-off online coaching gig to help you decide your options, assess our compatibility, and determine whether we are the right fit. Mapmaker is excellent value, held in confidence and without further commitment.

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so share your thoughts in the comments box below, and thank you for your time and generosity.

What do you think?

Your views are important, and your fellow readers would love to hear your opinion, so share your thoughts in the comments box below, and thank you for your time and generosity.