Simple is in. From writers, to software designers, to entrepreneurs and students, it seems like everyone is trying to do less and simplify their lives.

But why do we seek simplicity and minimalism in the first place? That’s a question that doesn’t get asked often enough – especially because the answer is different for everyone.

For some people, a simple life is less stressful. For others, the act of simplifying is stressful in and of itself.

For some people, having less is a way to make a statement against rampant consumerism. For others, it’s a way to boost their personal productivity.

Why we pursue simplicity determines how we pursue it.

For example, if simplicity is a way for you to create peace and calm in your home, you may choose to focus first on clearing out the visual and physical clutter in the room you occupy most often. However, if simple to you means anti-consumerism, you may want to start by getting rid of mass-market goods in favor of individually crafted pieces.

To me, simple means removing the obstacles between me and the great goals I set for myself.

That’s why I write about simplicity on a blog about accomplishing great things. It’s a philosophy that helps me work more efficiently and communicate more clearly. It’s about becoming self-reliant, because I’m responsible for making my own life remarkable.

Therefore, I’m focusing first on streamlining activities that relate directly to my work (both my day job and my passion projects). These activities include things such as responding to emails, writing blog posts (and longer works as well), coordinating my team, keeping track of ideas, organizing my computer, and so on.

That’s my focus, which means I don’t place much emphasis on things such as paring down my wardrobe or cooking simple meals. These things aren’t that important to me, but that’s a personal decision. They may be very important to you, and that’s cool.

Also realize that just because you start somewhere doesn’t mean you have to stay there. The effort I’m putting into simplifying how I work is already starting to spread into other areas of my life. The difference is that it’s effortless. I’m not trying to make twenty different changes at once; I started by changing only the things that were most important to me, and letting everything else slowly work itself out.

***

Whatever your simple reasons are, the important thing is to be clear about them. Otherwise, you flit randomly from one simplicity fad to another, without ever taking simple and making it your own. And if simplicity serves no purpose, then why bother?

What does simplicity mean to you? What are your priorities when it comes to simple living? Please share!

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Omar Eduardo.

During my Junior year in college, I started to take a real interest in learning about happiness and the differences between those who seemed to have abundance of it vs. those who seemed to lack it. What intrigued me was the disparity between these groups. Some people seemed to have everything they ever wished for, yet were unhappy, while others seemed to be happy even when not having much.

There are three simple things I tried out during this time that have made a drastic difference in my approach to life. Not only have these changes altered the way I think about life, they have made a great difference in how others perceive me and how often they approach me for a conversation or even advice.

Be aware of these during your day; they will positively impact you and those around you. These are simple, and sort of logical, but require practice and discipline to really keep it and enjoy the powerful benefits they have.

1. Smile. Keeping a smiling face during my day-to-day life has allowed me to feel better about myself. Did you know that, according to scientific research, when you force a smile on your face, a genuine-looking one, your brain reads your face and goes: “Oh my god, you’re smiling, you must be happy!” and goes into parade mode and lifts your moods. Really, don’t just half-smile, genuinely smile. And if you feel silly forcing it, even better, just go ahead and laugh out loud at your silliness. It will do wonders for you.

2. Work on your thoughts. What is going on in your head is more important than anything that is going on around you. Every time you start a task doubting that you will be able to succeed at it, you have defeated yourself before you even started. Limitations and problems are usually only in our head, stop them. If you don’t know how to finish something, seek advice from an expert, don’t give up.

Not only work on limiting thoughts, also work on any negative thoughts. Your final goal should be to only have positive thoughts. It doesn’t mean to be aloof to reality, but what it means is that instead of focusing only negative aspects of something, you will think about those negative things and look at the silver lining. Ask yourself: ‘how can I improve this situation?’

3. Strive for overall health. Exercise and diet are essential to a healthy living, and translate into further happiness for you. What you put in your mouth will affect you at every level possible. Our bodies were not designed for a sedentary life. Our ancestors used to walk several miles a day on average, and our bodies really crave that movement. Get over your sedentary life and start moving. After a few weeks of active exercise you will notice how you start needing the workout more and more.

Go ahead and indulge your body in a good workout. At the very least, get a pedometer for ~$20 from Amazon.com and see how many steps you take in a day. You’ll be amazed. For people who do not “workout” to not have what is considered a sedentary life, you should be taking 10,000 steps a day. That’s right, ten thousand. Either inject some rigorous exercise on your daily routine, or get that pedometer and take a walk around the neighborhood to get those steps in.

How to Make Simple Changes

Stop waiting for the perfect moment – start today.

There are many, many diets and exercise plans that promise to make you feel energized and better. There are so many you could probably try a different one every week for the rest of your life. The problem is, many people want to pick the single BEST diet & exercise program out there before they start doing anything. Don’t! Stop it. Go ahead, research for 10-15 minutes, and choose a good exercise program for you to start. Then, start today! You can make adjustments and keep researching every day for the single best program, but if you don’t start moving your body starting NOW, you never will.

Make small adjustments.

Also, if you don’t know what’s the best diet program for you, don’t worry. Most people can feel an amazing difference by substituting coffee with tea, coke with water or freshly squeezed juice (not heavily processed), and increasing the vegetable portions in their meals. Reduce the amount of fatty and sugary foods in your meal and instead eat more fruits and veggies. Try not to mess it up by adding a fatty dressing to it, there are some really good and healthy dressings that you should consider, a little oil and vinegar being simple and good enough. You can add some fruits for dessert, and you’re golden. Most people would be surprised at how much healthier they can eat and still feel satisfied (not full, satisfied) after they add a larger portion of greens and fruits to their meals.

So everyone, let’s start today to smile, strive to think positively 24/7, eat healthier, and exercise even if it’s only 15 minutes a day. The powerful effect these relatively simple steps have in your mood and in how you experience each day are magnificent, and you shouldn’t miss out. Let’s try to keep the excuses down to ZERO, nada, when it comes down to living a healthier & happier life. I look forward to your happiness & success!

To read more from Omar, head over to his blog and subscribe to his RSS feed.

I’m the kind of person that likes to think everything through before doing anything. I prefer to be methodical, to understand something from every angle before moving forward with it.

Often, this gets me into trouble.

When you’re concerned with knowing exactly what to do before you do it, it’s easy to get stuck in a fog of indecision. This is where most people give up. The more you hypothesize and theorize, the more you run through every possible scenario in your head, the more confused and indecisive and frustrated you get. It’s worse than a lack of motivation; it’s the feeling of being hopelessly lost. You desperately want to get started, but you can’t decide where to take the first step.

You ask yourself: How am I going to do this? What if that happens? What will so-and-so think? How can I make sure nothing goes wrong?

Does this sound familiar?

When you get stuck, it’s better to admit that you’re not going to be certain, then try something (anything) that seems reasonably correct. Here’s what I tell myself:

Make a genuine effort to get it right, then roll the dice and see what happens.

If that doesn’t work, try something else. But when you finally discover a solution that does work, hang on to it and focus on making it better. Nurturing the right idea is every bit as important as eliminating the wrong ideas. By experimenting, you’ll figure things out much faster than people who try to plan their way around every obstacle.

But you’ve heard this before: Do something every day. Ready, fire, then aim.

Since you’re still reading this post, I’ll assume you’re not entirely convinced by these arguments, however good they sound. That’s okay. I wasn’t either, so let me share the one that finally won me over:

Clarity.

People who talk about getting started seldom advertise the almost magical clarity that comes from action, once you stop worrying about knowing every step of the process and commit to doing what’s within your grasp right now. It’s an extension of what I call self-reliance minimalism.

After days or weeks of foggy thinking, clarity is exhilarating. It’s fun. (Remember when you actually had fun doing what you love?) When you let yourself get caught up in the rush of doing, instead of the grind of planning and theorizing, it’s like suddenly remembering why you were passionate about the project in the first place.

Imagine a sailing ship, stranded in the doldrums. Then imagine the sailors’ joy at that first cool breath of wind. That’s the feeling.

Loving your work again. How’s that for a reason to get started?

***

A quick update on guest posting:

First, thank you to everyone who’s submitted guest posts and post proposals so far. It’s amazing to read so many different yet insightful articles – totally gets my creative juices flowing. I’m grateful.

Second, due to the incredible response, the weekly guest post slot is already booked until early March. If you haven’t sent in your post yet, don’t worry. Just remember that it may take a few weeks for your turn to come around.

Third, I’m also looking to write some guest posts of my own. A few of you have already asked me to write for your blogs (thanks!), and I’ll be getting back to you in the next couple of days. If you have a blog and would like a guest post from me, please let me know what your timeline is and if you have any preferred topics. Let’s talk.

That’s it for today. See you guys tomorrow with our first guest post ever!

To change the world, you’ll need a team. You might be the fearless leader, the one making the big decisions and coming up with the best ideas, and you might have different names for your team: an army, an inner circle, a support group, a family – but you’ll still need a team.

Your team doesn’t have to be big. In fact, the more efficiently you work, the smaller your team can be. Swollen teams are clutter too.

The first rule of choosing team members is this: find people who make you feel dumb, but who feel dumb around you.

In other words, team up with people who are strong where you are weak, and weak where you are strong.

Most people feel threatened by others who they see as smarter, stronger, or more talented than they are. These people spend their lives sabotaging others to make themselves look valuable. They live in constant fear of being surpassed and replaced. Ironically, it’s that same fear that holds them back and makes them easily replaceable.

But world-changers (and you do want to change the world, right?) realize that talents come in different packages. The entire reason for having a team is to collaborate with people who round out your set of talents.

Partner with people who will force you to keep up. Hire people who are good enough to replace you.

If you’re an analytical introvert, like me, team up with a people person who isn’t as good with the numbers and spreadsheets.

If you’re a brilliant networker but a lousy writer, team up with a shy wordsmith.

If you’re an impulsive risk-taker, team up with someone who looks before she leaps.

You get the point. Instead of feeling threatened by a talented team member, find ways to support her weaknesses with your strengths. Realize that, in some areas, she’s astounded by your talents. And, for bonus points, look for opportunities to learn from her and improve your own set of skills.

Collaborating with talented team members allows you to accomplish greater things together than you could have done alone. But the trick is to stop feeling threatened, trust in your own abilities, and extend your hand.

***

Question for you: Do you work better in small groups with close friends, or would you rather keep colleagues and friends separate? Why?

When you’re doing well in life, sooner or later someone will say this to you. Perhaps not in those exact words. They might say: “You must be doing something unethical” or “You must have some connections” or “You just got a lucky break.”

Most people have a hard time believing – truly, honestly believing – that it’s possible for someone else to be smarter, faster, or more hardworking than they are. So when they get left behind in the dust, their first reaction is: “I followed the rules and ended up here, so the people ahead of me must be cheating somehow.”

Ignore these people. Don’t let them tell you that what you’re doing isn’t fair or right. Make that judgment for yourself, then stand by it and keep working hard.

But what if you’re on the other side of the fence? What if you’re watching someone else experience success after success, while you’re spinning your wheels and getting nowhere?

That’s when you have a choice. Do you turn your focus outwards, blaming bad circumstances and bad luck and other people, or do you turn your focus inwards, finding new things to try and more ways to improve? Yes, I know, it’s harder than it sounds. Believe me, I’ve been there – and very recently, in fact. So I’m not going to tell you it’s easy.

Here’s what I will say: It’s a crisis of self-confidence. It’s brutal. You will feel like quitting – and worse, you’ll feel stupid, for wanting to quit, and for trying this thing out in the first place. That’s exactly how I feel some days. But I’ve learned that the only way you’ll get through it is saying to yourself, over and over: I am doing good work. Do that. Say it over and over in your head and out loud, until you believe it.

Because here’s the thing: you can’t command success. But you can command yourself to do good work, and then make it better, and then keep making it better until you can no longer be ignored.

And when you get there, when you finally break out into the sun, other people will look at you and say, “You must have cheated to get where you are.”

That’s when you can look back at all your hard work, all the self-doubt you’ve overcome, all the agony of uncertainty and the clarity of action that you’ve discovered, and say to them: “No, I didn’t cheat. I did this. I’m doing this. And you can do it too, if you try.”

My message to you today is simple: You’re doing well. You deserve it. Don’t let anyone take that away from you.

The fewer rules you have for yourself and others, the better.

Rules and regulations are substitutes for trust: trust in someone’s goodwill, trust in someone’s competence, trust in someone’s commitment. The more a parent distrusts her child, the more rules she makes. The more a government distrusts its citizens, the more laws it imposes.

Rules can be useful, but they should be like the struts of a framework: simple, strong, and few.

At work, I fight hard to keep myself from trying to solve problems by making rules for my team. Draconian management only serves to make employees unhappy and managers annoyed. Write simple rules, enforce them strictly, and leave the rest alone. Better to get rid of a non-cooperative team member than to spread the burden to everyone else.

At home, I have a few simple rules that govern most of my life. When it comes to productivity, I trust myself to fill in the gaps and get things to work out. Through trial and error, I’ve discovered that trying to follow a rigid set of personal rules just stresses me out; it doesn’t actually bring better results.

The ability to do great work doesn’t come from imposing a thousand strict rules on your own life – it comes from paring down your complicated system and replacing it with self-confidence and creative freedom.

Do you trust yourself? Your family and friends? Your co-workers and colleagues? Or are you trying to hide behind a list of rules?

The things we accomplish in life are often shaped by the people we know and the people who know us. This week, my focus has been on reaching out and building connections with many of you.

If you read this Thursday’s post (and please do read it if you haven’t already), you know that I’m opening up a weekly guest post slot on Fridays. If you’ve already contacted me about guest posting but haven’t gotten a reply yet, don’t worry. I’m still working through the large number of emails, but I promise to respond to all of them tonight.

To make the process smoother, I’ve put up a set of 10 simple guest post guidelines. If you’re working on a guest post, please take a few minutes to read them.

Great Reads – And a Challenge

I’d like to encourage all of you (especially you introverts) to spend some time this week reaching out to people both online and offline. Reconnect with old colleagues, make some new friends, and share something personal with them while you’re at it.

To get you started, I’ve pulled together a few resources on networking and community from some of my favorite sources. Enjoy!

• 19 Presence Management Chores You Could Do Every Day – Chris Brogan, one of the kings of community building, shares a list of easy tasks that you can do daily to create and nurture an online network.
• Strangers, Critics, Friends or Fans – A pithy post from Seth Godin, in which he identifies the different groups of people you may be trying to bring into your community and where your time and effort are best spent.
• 1000 True Fans – Written by Kevin Kelly, one of the founders of Wired Magazine, this is one of the most famous posts on community building out there. If you haven’t read it before, you need to read it now. If you have read it before, it wouldn’t hurt to read it again.
• How to Create Authentic Relationships – My friend Bud Hennekes at A Boundless World writes about forming healthy relationships in a world where superficial connections have become the norm.
• Want to Improve Your Relationships? Listen Up! – Sometimes the best way to build a relationship is not to chase after it, but to be receptive and let it come to you. In Gail Brenner’s guest post on Goodlife Zen, she explores the importance of listening when reaching out to others.

This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list of networking and relationship resources. I’ve chosen these five articles because they showcase a variety of different viewpoints and explore different areas of community building.  If you’re looking for more, you may also want to read The Introvert’s Guide to People, one of my posts from last year. But don’t stop there; go forth and explore. That’s how we grow.

***

Do you have a favorite article or resource on building strong relationships and tight communities? Share it in the comments below.

See you all Monday!

First of all, I want to say a sincere thank you to everyone who responded to my post on Monday. Thank you for your support, ego-boosts, and suggestions. If you sent me a message but haven’t yet received a response, please check your junk mail folders to make sure my reply didn’t end up there. If you still can’t find it, feel free to send me a follow-up message so I can make sure you didn’t fall through the cracks.

Now, down to business. Bear with me through this presentation; it’s my Steve Jobs moment – except I don’t have a shiny gadget with a horrible name (iPad? Really?).

First, a little something for all you fellow bloggers out there – plus a new posting schedule.

Let’s start with the best part.

Each Friday, I’ll be opening up The Art of Great Things to guest posts from you, dear readers. Two reasons:

• Since we’re building a community here, it makes sense that everyone gets a chance to speak, instead of me hogging the mic the whole time.
• If you’re a blogger, guest posting is the single most effective way to get your name out there and find new readers. This is one way for me to say thank you for being such wonderful people.

I’ve already talked to a few of you about guest posting, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. If you’d like to contribute a post for The Art of Great Things, send me a quick message from the contact page. Make sure to leave a valid email address so we can set things up!

If you’d rather do an exchange of guest posts (where you write something for AOGT and I write something for your blog) or an interview, we can talk about that too.

Of course, this all depends on you, my friends. If there aren’t any guest posts ready one week, you’ll have to hear from me again that Friday. Reader beware

About the new posting schedule:

Currently, I post new, long-ish articles every Monday and Thursday, plus the fledgling Great Reads link post on weekends. Starting next week, however, I’ll be posting once a day, Monday through Friday. Not only will I be publishing more quality content per week, but I’ll also be providing a greater variety of content: long posts, short posts (Seth Godin style), perhaps even video posts. The sky’s the limit here.

Now let’s talk newsletter.

That’s right, The Art of Great Things is getting its very own weekly email newsletter.

Unlike many other blog newsletters, this one will NOT be a simple rehashing of content that’s already posted on the blog (although there will be a quick summary for people who only get the newsletter).

Instead, the AOGT newsletter will have more personal and experimental content than the main blog. This is your chance to go behind the scenes and get sneak previews of what I’m trying out and working on before it goes live on the blog.

Two quick points about the newsletter:

• No spam. I promise. No selling or distributing of your email address to anyone. Just one awesome newsletter delivered once a week.
• You’ll be able to unsubscribe at any time – but hopefully you’ll never want to.
• The newsletter needs a name, and I’m open to suggestions. Anyone?

And finally, we come to e-books.

I know what you’re thinking. “Everyone writes e-books!” Well yes, I agree. Pretty much everyone does. Which is why I plan on doing an extraordinary job to make reading them worth your while.

I haven’t locked in the exact topics of these two e-books yet, although I do know they’ll deal with the overall themes of work/life balance, simplicity, and being remarkable.

I’m a little hesitant to put an exact date on when each book will be finished, but I’m aiming to complete the first one by March or April, and the second some time in late summer. Either way, it’s an ambitious project for me. Stick around and see how it turns out.

Why am I announcing all this?

For three reasons. First, accountability. Now that I’ve made you a public promise, I have no choice but to deliver. No slacking off for me.

Second, authenticity. Sharing the plans and thought processes behind this blog is part of my commitment to being more honest and open with you.

Third, feedback. As I said at the beginning of this post, I want to know your opinion on all of this. If you think something’s a good idea, tell me. If you think something’s a terrible idea, stop me before someone gets hurt.

That’s it for today, my friends. A lot of big plans in this post, and a lot of small steps to get there. Look for the new posting schedule to start next week, and the newsletter to officially launch not long after that. I hope you’re as excited as I am, because January is almost over and it’s time to get started.

And don’t forget to help me name that newsletter.

Until next time …

I’m very proud to announce that, as of last week, The Art of Great Things readership has grown to over 1,000 subscribers!

1,000. A number that’s thrilling, humbling, and frightening all at once. A number that means one thousand people like you have been kind enough to read what I have to say, add your thoughts, and then stick around for more. Some of you have even taken the time to share AOGT with your friends, bringing more people into our community here.

That’s amazing. I can’t tell you how much it means to me.

You – all of you – are wonderful. I know it’s cheesy, but I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

***

In fact, if you’re subscribed to AOGT, before you read any further, please take just a second to introduce yourself via the contact page. I swear I won’t spam you; I just want to say thank you personally. When you’re done, come back here and keep on reading, because I have a personal confession to share with you.

***

In the six months I’ve been blogging (and especially in the three months spent here at The Art of Great Things), I’ve messed up so much it isn’t even funny.

Some of you who have been around since the beginning know that I originally started writing a blog called Beyond Freelancing. After a month or two, though, I realized that I was going in the wrong direction.

After agonizing over the decision for weeks (and with the help of the wonderful Leo Babauta), I finally mustered the courage to admit my mistake and start over here on AOGT, losing most of my original audience in the process.

(If you followed me here from Beyond Freelancing, let me just say that you are responsible, in a big way, for keeping me going.)

Most of the old posts from Beyond Freelancing are still here in the archives, and you can go back and read them to see just how bad some of them are. In fact, I’ve been tempted many times over the past few months to delete them – but I’ve made a commitment to honesty and authenticity, and I intend to keep it. I hope you don’t think less of me after reading them.

If there’s a lesson to be drawn from my inauspicious beginnings, it’s this: There are few mistakes you can’t recover from – better to start wrong than not to start at all.

Since then, I’ve been locked in a constant struggle to find my voice and my direction. Some of those struggles I turned into posts … others, I kept hidden.

I struggle often with these questions:

• Am I truly being helpful to the people who take time to read my writings?
• Do I have what it takes to be remarkable?
• How do I measure up against the people and writers I admire?

The first question, at least, you can help me answer. Am I being helpful to you? What topics would you like me to write about? What questions and struggles can I help with?

***

The scariest part about blogging for me is exposing my creative and work processes to the world.

I am, by nature, a very private person when it comes to my Work (yes, with a capital W). When I write, I refuse to let people read my drafts before I’m fully satisfied. My girlfriend is the one exception to this rule – but it’s taken years for me to get to that point.

But blogging, as I’ve said before, is all about the process. It’s life, work, trial-and-error, failure, perseverance, and success, all rolled together and expressed via RSS feed. There’s no time to make everything perfect and polished, and once your thoughts are out in the world, there’s no way to fully take them back.

That’s hard for me to do. That’s why I’m so often tempted to go back and “censor” my previous writings.

I’ve screwed up in other ways too. Sometimes I forget to respond to emails. Sometimes I forget to reply to your comments. And sometimes I try to make those screwups disappear by pretending they never happened.

But I’ve realized the very real benefits of sharing the journey, even if I don’t look quite as good after doing it. To hell with appearances. Those of you who are also bloggers: don’t shy away from laying bare the unfinished work you’re doing; it’s how you’ll find your voice.

So in the spirit of transparency, this year I’ll be keeping all of you posted on what I’m doing and planning on doing here at The Art of Great Things (and life in general).

This Thursday, look for information about an upcoming newsletter, e-book series, a posting schedule change, and more.

Most importantly, I want to create a true community. And I want you all to be part of it.

There’s a lot for me to work on in 2010. I plan on stretching myself further than I ever have before. What about you? What’s been on your mind lately?

***

In writing down all these concerns and questions, I don’t want to make it seem like I’m unhappy or ungrateful. In fact, it’s just the opposite. These past few months have been the best, most productive, and most instructive of my life. I’m happy. I’m deliriously, undignifiedly (doubt that’s actually a word) happy.

But at the same time I have to acknowledge that the struggles, the frustration, and the failures were part of building that happiness.

I’ve rediscovered so much of myself through action, through doing, and that’s always a little bit painful. And I’m not quite there yet.

But 1,000 of you, even though we’ve never met in person, have been willing to help me along the way.

So thank you again. All of you. Please stick around so I can repay the favor.

All the best,

~Jeffrey

A few years ago, a financial advisor treated my co-workers and me to lunch – one of those deals where you get a free meal in exchange for listening to a sales pitch for financial planning services.

The central theme of the advisor’s pitch was: “Start planning and saving for retirement now! The sooner you get started, the more secure you’ll be in the future.”

Good advice, to be sure. But none of us left that day feeling particularly motivated to consider the prospect of retirement. And I suspect we aren’t the only ones to feel less-than-anxious about the far-off land of retirement. Why?

Most people aren’t concerned about what money means in the far, far future – they’re concerned about how money affects their lifestyle right now.

Bottom line: we don’t want to be rich; we want to be rich now.

But “rich” means different things to different people. One person might be driven to create a fortune, while another would rather live freely on a tight budget. Each one considers him/herself to be rich, and they’re both right. Force these two people to switch places, however, and they’ll both be miserable.

To be “rich,” you not only need to have money – you also need to follow a financial path that makes you happy. That requires a decision now, rather than later. It is absolutely something that affects your lifestyle today.

This is, in my opinion, the first question you must ask yourself before making any sort of financial plan:

Is accumulating a lot of wealth one of my goals, or am I happy with securing a steady income?

There’s nothing wrong with either option, but they will lead you down radically different paths.

The Path of Wealth

Your heroes are people like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates. You not only want to have money – you want to have more than you could possibly spend in a lifetime. Some people may think your goals are shallow, but you understand that wealth is a tool, and it’s how you use it that counts.

On the path of wealth, generating money is of your primary goals. You choose jobs based on how they’ll help you develop the skills and resources needed to make money, even if you’re not particularly interested in the job itself. You’re willing to spend a lot of time on making money now (and possibly for years to come), in the hopes of creating (or investing in) an immensely profitable and scalable business.

Often you create success, reap the benefits, and move on to the next project.

As you walk the path of wealth, you come to understand that wealth encompasses more than cash. You’re also compelled to create products, businesses, and innovations that make an impact on the world, that create an enormous amount of value – which, of course, usually has the side effect of making you (deservedly) rich.

Your legacy is one of size, breadth, and reach.

Sadly, your brand of life isn’t as socially acceptable today as it once was. People may be suspicious of you simply because you have so much money, and many will presume to tell you what you ought to do with the wealth you’ve accumulated. Your task, then, is not only learning how best to make money, but also how best to spend it.

The Path of Income

I personally walk the path of income. Although I wouldn’t mind being wealthy, I’m not nearly as excited by the idea of being (financially) rich as I am by the idea of being financially free. I am content to make an “average” income for the rest of my life, so long as I can live my life in whatever way I choose.

I’m more likely to start small, personal, but generally less-scalable businesses that offer a modest income and a lot of flexibility in time and place.

My financial focus is on reaching a “critical mass” of steady income that allows me to live comfortably and that, preferably, can be nurtured from anywhere in the world. Once I reach this critical level of income, I’m happy to leave financial growth alone and turn my time and attention onto things I find enjoyable, interesting, or compelling. I enjoy the idea of reaching my financial “endgame” quickly, even if that endgame doesn’t involve a large bank account.

Like those who walk the path of wealth, I recognize the importance of making an impact and leaving a legacy. Unlike them, however, I’m likely to make my impact in a smaller, more personal, more focused manner. I’m more likely to be a thought leader than a market leader. I create change by finding ways around the money barrier, and because of this, I am often more agile.

Even though the path of income is popular nowadays, few people are willing to fully embrace it, because they’re unable to let go of their fleeting desires for the path of wealth. The challenge for many of us is to weigh our values, make a decision, and never look back.

Isn’t there a happy medium?

Yes and no. There are degrees of financial need; for example, someone walking the path of income with a family to support would need to focus on money for a lot longer than someone who’s content to walk the road alone. For some wealth-seekers, creating a $100 million fortune is good enough; others seek to break records.

And there are places where the path of wealth and the path of income intersect. No matter which path we choose, we must eventually learn that money is a means to an end, and our choice is whether to leave a legacy by using money directly (funding cancer research) or indirectly (volunteering for disaster relief).

In that sense, yes, there is a happy medium.

But the crucial difference is in the focus of each path. On the path of wealth, making money is a primary focus. You want your efforts to translate into dollars, and the careful growth of your finances is something you truly care about. You are to be commended.

On the path of income, however, you care about money only as a platform from which to launch the rest of your life. Your emphasis is on creating this platform quickly, then moving on with your life. If your efforts make you wealthy, great – if not, you’re still happy. You are also to be commended.

Here’s what’s important: both paths are honorable, though they are not equally popular. We must decide whether having more wealth gives us pride or weighs us down – and the answer will be different for each of us.

Which path are you on? How will you walk forward with purpose and integrity? Please share your story and opinions.