<div class="text-justify">

One of my friends is struggling in her current work position, where she loves the job, but hates the company she works for. However, her position is a relatively new role in companies and finding something similar is unlikely. The irony is, it is an *employee wellbeing* position, and she is not feeling that well as an employee.

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/23zGgRfPLJH7F3s65XMCMrva3E1ZgSkb3xEwxi2aYp8cAYWNffrB3r6dA3FveDmnYodNd.png)

She also asked me about my own role knowing that it is intense currently and whether I am planning on staying at the company. My response is *of course, there is a recession coming.* 

>"I hate adulting."

*That was her ^*

I hate it too.

Part of "adulting" is doing the things that need to be done, not always the things we want to do. Of course, if there is enough backing, "what we want" is possible, because there is no need to do anything for money. I don't think there are many people who are wholly in that situation. Some do what they want regardless, but I also find that these people tend to complain a lot about their conditions, as if the two positions are mutually exclusive - that what they are doing, doesn't affect their outcomes. 

After talking with my daughter about thievery, she asked why some people don't have enough money and this led to us talking about how people use their money. First, she thought it was because they didn't work enough or earn enough, but we started talking about needs and wants. 

I used the example where if we are hungry, we might want ice cream, but what our body needs is better kinds of food to function well. If we spend all of our money on the ice cream we want, we won't have enough to spend on the food we need. She added that she only buys toys with her money, which led to a discussion about value and whether she will still want to play with those toys when she is much older.

She thought for a bit and added that she thinks it might be a good idea to take care of our needs first and then our wants. And, it might be possible to have what we need and *some of what we want* if we are careful.

>Will she ever put it into practice? 

It is impossible to say, but hopefully in the coming years, we will have many similar discussions and hopefully have more context through relevant topics of the moment, things that are important to her. However, I wonder what life would be like if we were all able to understand and be able to apply a bright-line between our needs and wants.


![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/23tSzChUNEabPoGRok9rUcdQTtC2SmupWPzAMArwoVLc4AsZaQgNUgxrssRwaodwFE1ej.png)

If we did have a clear understanding, making the decisions on how we use our money would be far easier. At the moment however, the culture of media and advertising is to create ambiguity between the two, making it harder to distinguish what we need right now and what is a *nice to have* product or service. 

An easy heuristic is that most things that require or get advertising budgets, are nice to haves, not *must haves.* No one needs a streaming service for music or movies, and no one needs brand label clothing. No one needs to eat out often, and no one needs to upgrade their phone as each new model is released. But, we are made to feel that at least some of these things (and tens of thousands more depending on person) are needs, not wants. We feel we need them, otherwise we are going to be left behind in some way. 

I wonder what the outcome would be if we ran a bright-line tool that could accurately differentiate our purchasing decisions into needs and wants for a year. What would be the savings and, what would be the costs? Yes, we would likely be "missing out" on some enjoyable aspects of our lives, but would we see it as worth it given the outcomes? What if it was paired with another tool that would take any leftovers that weren't spent on needs and diversified them across an investment portfolio. 

Based on our year prior to using the tools and the results of the year using them, would we want to continue the process for another year? If we did this for a few years, at what point would we be comfortable enough to introduce "want purchases" into the tools and, what kinds of wants could we satisfy?

I think that often, we are in the frame that while we might be balancing our needs and wants now, what we are doing is limiting what kinds of wants we are able to satisfy. If we could hold-off on the early wants, we would be able to meet much larger future wants, because we would have built a sustainable investment base that can support greater levels of wants. 

While our wants might always grow, if there was a way to put them on "hiatus" for a period of time, I wonder how many would choose it. It would be the consumer equivalent of being forced to only eat food that improved our health for some period, or having cigarettes completely unavailable to a smoker. Instead of working on willpower and our own evaluations, perhaps at least for a period of time, a forced restructuring process might actually be welcome by many once better results started, but who would opt-in to it?

In an on-demand, so much of what we want is at our fingertips and within easy reach, which is part of a company's desire, to generate demand and lower the barriers for purchase. The more successful they are at this, the less successful we are at being able to differentiate our needs and wants and the repercussions follow. And, it is always good to remember that a company is incentivized to generate profit for shareholders, even if it isn't in the best interest of their customers, or society as a whole. 

My friend is in the field of wellbeing in the workplace, but I would assume that a large part of this, is affected by our general wellbeing, including our ability to meet our personal needs, *and wants.* Work-Life balance isn't just about the time spent between the two, it is also about the values of what we do in those times and whether what we do meets our real needs, not our wants disguised as *real needs.*

Ambiguity -  dealing with it is part of adulting. 

And it isn't always possible to make a bright-line heuristic, but something is better than nothing. 

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]


</div>





Posted Using [LeoFinance <sup>Beta</sup>](https://leofinance.io/@tarazkp/bright-lines-of-behaviors)