Your Resources Are Their Own Currency

Typically, when you think of resources you think of money. That’s likely because money is the most standardized currency we have in society, and it give us the ability to reciprocate value. But money in of itself isn’t worth anything. When money can be used to help you with your other resources it starts to become effective. 

To touch on some of these alternative resources, they’re things like being able to participate emotionally with others through compassion and empathy, your perspective and creative thinking, and your time and energy. The dollar only has value because it allows you to do more in these other capacities.

But the larger question to ask is, if money is only a proxy for other resources, why don’t we just transact with those directly? And I think we do. We choose where we invest our compassion, energy, and time because they are finite resources and need to be allocated appropriately. I’d even go further to say that these resources serve as currencies themselves because they allow value to be transferred in a more implicit way.

If we live our lives optimizing for money, and value ourselves based on the dollars coming in, then we’re making decisions that are one degree removed from what actually matters. Let's think more about how you can use the intrinsic resources you have.