Find the perfect day without money, materialism

OK, brace yourselves; we’re going to get a little deep here. We have finally finished A New Earth.   

Yeah, yeah, we know we are a little behind the eight ball on this one but let’s agree, it’s not a summer beach read and hey, we’ll admit, we’ve been a little busy. 

Now being Smart Cookies we find a way to relate everything we read back to money. And Eckhart’s Tolle’s book is no different.

Essentially Tolle explains that many people become consumed by obtaining things in attempts to fill or complete themselves. While we agree, we are the first to admit that we love “things” — new shoes, new clothes, new items for our home — you name it. So we were relieved to read that is OK to want things.

However, according to Tolle, it’s impossible to lead a fulfilling life if we try to build our identity through “things”. Tolle illustrates this point by commenting “we cannot really honour things if we use them as a mean to self-enhancement, that is to say, if we try to find ourselves through them.”

The point is, to be appreciative of what you do have right now. And it’s not about what you want but rather why you want it. For example, do you want the coach bag because it’s good quality and lasts forever or do you want it because you think people will look at you and think you’ve arrived? 

How many of you have thought, “Once I get that new house, then my life will be better”?  Or  “If I get this dress for tonight, then I will stand out at the party”? Or “Once I get that new car I will find the right woman?”

We’ll admit we used to throw around the same excuses but we’ve gotten a lot better ever since we created what we call “The Perfect Day”. Planning your perfect day allows you to get clear on what exactly you want to spend your money on. On smartcookies.com we have a number of questions to help you describe your perfect day. Essentially you pull three activities from your perfect day that bring you joy (spending time with family and friends, cooking, working out) and then three things in you perfect day that you don’t have now but are looking forward to in the future.

We invite you to visit www.smartcookies.com and download the Perfect Day exercise.

– Tune in Wednesday night at 9 p.m. EST/PST on the W Network and be sure to visit
smartcookies.com for more tips.