Create More Than You Consume

Richard Vetter Most of us can relate to times of scarcity—those times when our expenses exceeded our incomes. We may have experienced harsh economic times in this country, or we may have experienced them elsewhere. If we were lucky enough to not go through those times, we have certainly heard the stories from others.

The natural response to tough times is to tighten our belts and control the things we feel we can control. We focus on the expenses under the assumption that we have little control over our income and other positive inputs into our lives. Because most of the messages in our over-stimulated media obsess on driving our consumption, those expenses tend to dominate our thoughts. We often see the solution only in cutting back on the things we spend money on and ignoring the ways we can improve our top line—the value we bring to this world.

This tendency to focus on “cutting back” can be useful, as it reduces our distractions and allows us to better see the opportunities for creation. Using an art metaphor, the sculptor continually chips or scrapes away at all the unnecessary material hiding the beauty that she sees within the mass of wood, clay or stone in front of her. She does not focus on the waste, but rather on the creation within. It is the same in our own lives; once we strip away the distractions we’ve been conditioned to want, we are left free to work on building abundance.

Wealth is not just about the money. It is truly far deeper than that. It is in this realization where we can truly change our lives: Wealth is an abundance of what you value most.

Let’s be clear. Consumption is not evil! We need to provide for the necessities of living. It’s okay to experience life to the fullest, to want what we want, enjoy some luxuries and there are opportunities and urgent needs that sometimes require large financial outlays. Our financial plans fail, though, when consumption exceeds our creation.

What Is Consumption?

We often think of consumption as simply buying goods and services, and that certainly accounts for a lot of waste, but that is only the beginning. The Canadian Oxford Dictionary defines consumption as “the using up of a resource.” Given that time is our most valuable and finite resource, I would say that the most wasteful type of consumption is in frittering away our time on things that really don’t add anything to our lives.

You can probably see where I’m going on this! In doing some very casual online research, I found a few eye-popping statistics that I don’t necessarily disbelieve. For instance, in an average lifetime spanning 79 years, we will spend:

11.33 years in front of a screen, checking social media or watching television of one sort or another.
7 years trying to go to sleep. Some say this is often because we consume too much screen time and do not have great pre-sleep rituals.
4.33 years driving or riding in a car.
235 days waiting in line.
118 days looking for stuff.

We cannot eliminate all the time-wasters in our lives, but we can certainly take huge steps in replacing the very topical culprit: the outrageous amount of time we spend interacting with digital devices. Why not replace that wasted time with more productive and creative pursuits?

What Is Creation?

Anything you produce through time, effort and imagination counts as creation:

Being the best that you can be in your occupation and always adding more value than you are paid for. You are creating a valuable resource and that will usually be rewarded by your current employer or by someone else who values what you have created.
Building a business by creating the goods or services that other people want. Business owners immediately understand the creative process. If they don’t create, they don’t eat!
Developing your art. If you don’t feel you have any talent, start anyway. Most great artists are offended by the idea of “natural talent.” They simply became good by working hard at the habit of creating.
Working on your health through exercise and proper nutrition. You are creating a healthier you as well as adding more years to your life and more life to your years.
Working on your relationships by spending time with those you love and those whom you want to see more of in your life.
Helping others. Zig Ziglar said it best: “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” If you don’t know where to start, reach out to your community volunteer centre and sign up for something! Often, the moment you get intentional about helping others the opportunities will find you.
Investing your surpluses. When your money is invested in the marketplace in ventures that also create, you are participating in the creative process and providing a valuable resource to fund your future pursuits and generosity.

Why We Should Create:

Creating makes you smarter. The greatest teacher is experience. The more you do, the more you learn. I was never a writer but once we committed to writing a regular article each week for our clients and friends, the feedback from readers got better and better and that’s a clue that these articles are improving.
Creating makes you wealthier. Further to the concept that wealth is an abundance of what you value most in life, when you purposefully focus on creating more than consuming in all parts of your life, you will build more and more wealth.
Creating makes you healthier. In a review published by The American Journal of Public Health, study participants who engaged in various in creative pursuits reported more positive emotions and fewer feelings of depression.
Creating prevents needless consumption. When you are busy enjoying the creative process, there is often no time for pointless consumption and “shopping therapy.”

This past year, two of our sons got married to the loves of their lives. It was the trigger for us to get very intentional on being present with our family and friends, being more spontaneous in our social lives and re-engaging with our community. We nurtured our garden into a paradise that we truly enjoy spending time in, cooked and entertained a lot and got caught up on a lot of do-it-yourself projects. We initiated a lot of creative projects in our business and made memories in our travels. Although we spent a bit of money in the process, I think it’s fair to say we created a lot more than we consumed.

Are you looking for the trigger to ignite the creative force within? Why not think about writing your own story and recording it in a journal every day? Most people spend much of their time and money living other people’s stories. Maybe it is time to live in your own.

Richard Vetter, CFP, CLU, CIM, President WealthSmart Incorporated. www.wealthsmart.ca www.insuresmart.ca