It begs the question

If your need or desire is to live a more meaning filled and confident life, here's a question worth keeping top of mind -- Given the situation I'm in and what I'm doing, am I adding value, staying neutral or consuming it?

This begs further inquiry. What is real value and how would I know whether I am creating, exchanging or consuming it, or staying neutral. And why is it important that I should, or would want to be a net creator of value?

And these are important questions. But it's not until you've developed a framework capable of grappling with, and of being able to give insight into questions like this, that you're ever really going to be sure about whether you're a net consumer or producer, and why that would even be important.

And as a net producer of value, what would be require to produce more in the same amount of time and with the same amount of energy [or less]. And if you're a net consumer, what changes would be required to make a shift, and how would you feel about yourself if you did so.

Whatever we do to earn money, be it a sales person, administration assistant, CEO or independent professional, every situation provides the opportunity to provide at least one of two forms of value -- qualitative and/or quantitative.

And in an ideal world where money was a pure mechanism for the exchange of real value, our business bank accounts might provide some reassurance. But money has become at least equally a commodity where we hear, let your money make more money. Money making money, makes more money... not more value.

And not all forms of value are exchanged for money.

Purpose, meaning, confidence, ease and all those qualities so searched for in the world, are found in our ability to produce and produce some more... value. Business on the other hand is the ability to take at least some of that, and exchange it in the market, for money.