A friend recently asked me, “What would you do if someone gave you infinity money?”

Well, my first reaction would be the same as to his question. Laugh delightedly. Well you would, wouldn’t you? The biggest worry in life (for me, anyway) would suddenly evaporate. It would be like being promised that you would never be rained on again, even if it was raining, there would be little rain-free bubble around you keeping you dry. (Maybe also the rain-drops would sing little songs to you as they passed, but maybe this is just my imagination taking things too far, though you have to admit … it would be pretty cool.)

I guess the second thing I would do would be to walk around feeling like I was floating a foot from the ground. All those projects that would suddenly become possible. All the things you could fund. You could solve so many of the world’s problems at once. In fact, you would immediately become the world’s only bank. You could lend as much as people wanted, and never worry about being paid back. You could give everyone else infinity money too, since you can never diminish infinity.

If you take the question to its logical conclusions, your having infinity money would totally change the world. Economics would be turned on its head. All financial motivation would be forever eradicated. People would no longer work for money, they would work for love. Social barriers would come down, or at least be revolutionised. Wow, thinking about all the possibilities makes the mind boggle. Society would be deeply and profoundly changed, forever. Think of it, capitalism and communism would become the same thing. Greed would be irrelevant. What would happen to business and employment?

But then, I guess something else would become valuable. Money would no longer be used as money. Something else would become sought after — what would that be? Natural resources? Mental ability?

Zooming back in to the original intentions of the question, though (and with some quick reinterpreting of the question) what would I do with infinity money, if that money was somehow limited so as not to change the world, only to remove financial limitations on myself?

This is a damn good question. How long it takes for you to come up with an answer shows you what dreams you have, and how much of them are limited by money. Would having no money worries suddenly satisfy your every desire?

Hmmm. This was an offhand question, but it’s really got me thinking. What’s important to you? What would you do if money was no longer a worry (or a temptation)?

Imagine a harbour when the tide is high. It’s full of water, and the boats are afloat. The sun sparkles on the sea, and everything is fine. Now picture the tide going out. The boats sink and sink until they lie at the bottom of the harbour, tilted to one side. There’s a bad smell. The walls are covered with seaweed and slime, making it difficult or impossible to climb out.

Mood swings are just like this. When you’re happy, the world looks great, full of promise and wonder. When you’re down, everything is horrible — abject misery, and doom, doom, doooooooom. I’m being dramatic but actually it’s not far off how you can feel. I’m not just talking about feeling a bit blue, I mean the long term down-ness that can affect people (read: me).

Some people are less swayed by their emotions than others, and it’s certainly wise to make every effort to be consistent regardless of your feelings. But for those of us still on the journey, how do you keep going when the harbour’s empty? I ask myself, what’s at the bottom of the harbour?

In amongst the rusty nails and seaweed and dead fish, I find a few gems. There’s one called, “I am not a victim”. I may not be in total control of a situation, but I can change the way I see it. For example, I can choose whether I see a long day in a job that I am not passionate about as another example of how the world is rubbish, or I can choose to see it as an investment in the bank of “Time to start following your dreams!”

They don’t even have to be particularly clever, these gems at the bottom of your harbour. Another of mine is, “Life is good and it’s worth carrying on.” You know, when you feel fine, it’s embarrassing to remember that sometimes you need a bit of a boost. But when the tide is out, it’s good to remember that things didn’t always look this way, and that they will get better.

I also have a picture of my dreams. Your dreams are like mountain-tops, a long journey away, but there all the same. When you’re at the bottom of the harbour it’s not always easy to see those mountain tops, because they’re obscured by the walls. Looking at the photo isn’t as good as looking at the real thing, but it reminds you that you still have dreams, even if they seem impossible at the moment.

I keep photos of my family there too. And there’s a laptop connected to all the blogs I read! And of course there’s always prayer. It’s inestimably helpful to have God knocking around in your desperation. (Although he does have a habit of turning seemingly bottomless pits into mere hard work, so watch out for that if you were holding out for a pity party.)

What’s at the bottom of your harbour? Make sure that amongst all the detritus and debris that life strews across your path, there’s something that you put there, too. Otherwise it’s just rusty nails, seaweed and dead fish …

I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad * by Robert Kiyosaki. Robert is a very successful entrepreneur, and this book is about his journey. It’s great for “thinkers” because it show you how to use your mind to make money. As a thinker rather than a doer, I found it really encouraging and liberating to learn that I can be successful too. If you’re a follower of this blog, you’ll know that I’m prone to exaggeration, but for once I can say that with all sobriety that this book has changed my life. (I’m not rich — not yet — but it’s dramatically impacted the way I think).

One of the principles he talks about is the need to acquire assets in order to make money. Assets are anything that make you money rather than lose it. So, for example, if you own a house and rent it out, you make money from it (people pay you to live there). On the other hand a car, traditionally seen as an asset, in fact loses you money because it goes down in value and you spend money on it (fuel, repairs, tax, etc).

I think the same principle can be applied to confidence. Spend your time getting things that add to your confidence. Just like if you buy some houses to rent out, you’re acquiring money-making assets, you can “buy” things in your life that will give you a return on your investment in terms of confidence (and a whole host of other things, such as optimism, experience, wisdom, growth).

If you have an unhealthy habit, say smoking, quit it! Don’t see this as getting rid of something bad, see it as acquiring something good. Quitting it will give you a sense of accomplishment. You can then reinvest this accomplishment into new projects. Your thinking will be, “I quit smoking, I could … ” (you get to choose what you do next).

A great source of confidence for me is past accomplishments. As a teenager, I had quite low confidence and spent a lot of time with my computer instead of, for example, going outside and getting a life. However, that investment (the cost here is time … and a social life) is now producing results for me. The confidence I picked up in learning to do something I couldn’t previously do can now be applied to learning things I can’t do at the moment but would like to do. For example, learning how to make money. I learnt PHP, I can learn to make money.

Build these assets in your life and they will never stop producing confidence for you. The trick is to use that momentum to go on to the next thing. Regularly remind yourself of your past achievements. (If you feel you don’t have any achievements, think again. I’ve learnt that that what I look for, I usually find. Don’t look at your life expecting to find failures, look expecting to find successes.)

* If you use this link to buy this book, I get some money from it. It doesn’t cost you any more, but it does help me to keep writing this blog!