If money is an illusion, why do we spend our lives chasing it?

A Review of Kyle Cease documentary: The Illusion of Money

As we get swept up in the daily grind of paying bills and planning for a wealthy, debt-free future, we forget about the most important, and perhaps the only thing we really have: the present.

The present with our children. The present with our spouse. The present with our loved ones. Doing what we want to do, now rather than some other time. Time is finite.

We often forget this in the pursuit of money as it gives us the illusion of a better life, once we have enough of it. How much is enough? My husband and I often discuss this question. It’s really hard to answer, especially when you are responsible for your children and want to secure the best life you can for them.

Kyle Cease’s latest documentary based on his best-selling book The Illusion of Money, circles around this concept of time versus money. He talks about how in our quest to make more money, get promoted, and buy the house, we forget to pay attention to what we really want out of this only life we have. Our life right now is not a rehearsal, this is it!

It is a heart-warming yet strong wake-up call to the fact that money is infinite, our time on this planet isn’t. And how doing something that matters to you, will matter to others by default.

Kyle narrates his own story about how he left what would have been a high-paying career in comedy, to follow his heart and combine his skill of being a comedian with his passion to facilitate personal transformation. What resulted was a tremendously fulfilling, abundant life that impacted other people, and proved lucrative as well. In making the shift, he followed his inner voice, connected with the universe and took a leap of faith. The trick is to not chase the money, but follow the heart; the money will come.

I did this once when I was 26. I quit my corporate job to live in Spain, learn Spanish and become a travel writer. The plan was 6 months, I stayed for 3-years and then went back to the corporate world with new skills and triple the salary. I didn’t even think about money back then; I just followed my heart and it rewarded me personally and financially in ways I could never imagine. (If you want to know more about my journey and how it transformed me, I recently put a book out that you can check out here.)

Now I am back at that point where I am rethinking how I want to spend my working days so that they are more fulfilling, and hopefully inspire my children to do the same when they grow up.

There is no right way of doing this. There is no guarantee of anything, not even money, no matter what you are doing, Kyle reminds us. Then why are we not living our fullest lives? Worth a watch.