The Value of Nothing
This idea came to me the other day, but I still haven’t had a lot of time to fully integrate it into my thinking. However, I feel that it is important and what better way to flesh it out than writing a Blog post about it.
A lot of my ideas come to me during times of stillness or when I’m not really doing anything. For example, when I’m in the shower, or driving my car, or just sitting and enjoying the sun. It is during these times that all of a sudden I get ideas out of nowhere.
The idea revolved around understanding the value of “nothing”. When I say “nothing” I am talking about all the different version of something NOT existing. Empty space, emptyness, openness, etc.
Let me offer an example. Let’s say you found out you had Cancer today? How much would it be worth to you to NOT have cancer? Or let’s say that you had a lot of clutter in your room… how much value would you put on NOT having clutter?
Maybe there’s a better way I can explain it. Let’s say you have an item in your room…like a stapler you bought a long time ago for $20 which you don’t have staples for because they are some kind of odd sized staples. You have a new stapler which has staples in it, but you hang onto the old stapler because you paid $20 for it and you know it’s worth something. You think that perhaps one day you’ll find the special type of staples for the old stapler and perhaps end up using it again. You can’t just throw it away because it’s worth something right?
But what is the “empty space” that this stapler occupies in your room worth? Normally we value “empty space” as being worth $0, so something occupying that space that’s worth even one penny is technically more valuable than the empty space right?
Another way to think about is when it comes to time. How much is an hour of your working time worth? $10? $20? $100? $500? $1000?
Let’s say you currently work and make $25/hour, then it’s easy to value your working time as being worth $25/hour.
But what is an hour of your time worth when you’re sitting on the couch doing NOTHING? $0? If so, why?
What if we started to put value on “nothingness”. What if we started to assign a dollar value on every square foot in our house, on the value that “empty space” brings us, and on the “idle time” in our lives?
Let’s look at it from another point of view. Have you ever been to Disneyland? We can pay $5,000 to go on a trip to Disneyland where we have fun, relax and enjoy ourselves with our family. But how much value do we assign to going to the local free park to have a picnic? Or to walk along the beach?
Ever since this idea has popped into my head, I’ve been thinking about it more and more and I’m starting to see a lot more examples all around me of this concept holding true. People live their lives every day and they assign value to physical objects, material possessions, but hardly anyone assigns value to empty space, peace, quiet, calm, etc.
How would our lives change if we started to value these things? If you valued every cubic foot of empty space in your room at $50, which allows you to stretch out and live clutter free and allows your mind to think more clearly and get inspired ideas, would you be hanging on to that 10 year old stapler worth a few bucks?
How much is empty space in your closet worth? How much is NOT having to drive to work worth to you? Meaning, what if you put a $500/month price tag on NOT having to drive to work. I’m not talking about savings in gas, or time, but just the whole energy drain of having to fight with traffic. What if you valued NOT having to do that?
How much would NOT having to drive to work be worth to you?
How much would NOT having to do inventory count be worth to you?
How much would NOT having to deal with bitchy customers be worth to you?
etc.
The more I think about this line of thinking, the more I start to realize that finding your inspired path has just as much to do with what you DON’T want to have in your life as it does with what you DO want to have.
So, how does this apply to making money doing what you love?
Do you value your “relax” time enough that you could ever expect someone to PAY you to relax, without feeling guilty? Sounds obsurd right?
But if so, what about the value of your time doing something that you love? If you love it so much, isn’t it just as “easy” for you as “relaxing” or being in Disneyland? How could you ever expect someone to pay you for that? Or could you?
As I said, this is a new idea that I haven’t fully had time to explore yet, but I know that the “secret” in doing what you love and making money from it is related to learning to value things that we normally don’t value like empty space, nothingness, lazy time, air, sitting around and doing nothing, performing activities that we enjoy, etc.
Something to think about…
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Paul Piotrowski is a highly ambitious and passionate self-improvement fanatic who has spent over 13 years relentlessly pursuing and studying personal development wisdom in almost every area of life. His highly intuitive drive to seek wisdom and truth in life has led him through very diverse areas of experience ranging from entrepreneurship and business, natural [...]
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Very interesting questions you put on.
for instance: How much would NOT having to drive to work be worth to you?
Indeed a lot. Free time (time is something, isn’t it?) is worth a lot nowadays. Time to spend with your loved ones is highly valued.
A very good read. Thnaks.
Mind blowing. Whoa… I need to step back for a moment. I guess the one thing in my life that I would put a high value on is the ability to go for a walk. Not everyone has that luxury, but I can just get up and walk whenever I feel like it. This is worth a lot to me.
Hmm, Paul, there seems to be two of me in your sidebar… and impostor maybe? or a WP fart..
@Elijah: Have you changed you email address lately? The widget uses unique email address to determine uniqueness. It will fix itself in a few days if you changed to a different address.
A very provocative post.
A slightly different twist on it, from Edward de Bono: you can sell air for the price of chocolate – it’s called an Aero bar.
Paul,
I find that putting a dollar value on my “non-work” time is an exercise in true futility. Laying on the couch at 1000 dollars an hour just makes me feel more guilty and less able to relax. But consider this: “the need to resharpen the saw is just as valuable as using the saw.”
I try not to think about “nothing”. Or the state of having “nothing”. I would much more prefer to think about abundance. If you think about “not having cancer” you manifest cancer. If you think about not going to Disneyland (good reference by the way) You’ll never go to Disneyland. I’d rather think about solitude, being physically fit, and being in a state of happiness that generates from within.
There’s a big difference between appreciating “What you have” and thinking about “what you don’t have”.
My life is now about Abundance, Freedom, Creation, and the ability to Help others. If a thought enters my mind that doesn’t eventually lead to a Positive emotional state, I tell myself that it’s time for a pivot or to refocus. If it doesn’t get me from point A to point B, I might wind up at point Z where I don’t want to be. And the Universe is equally as good at giving you what you don’t want.
Stay focused on “feeling GOOD”
@Ace Andres: The exercise is not so much in putting a dollar value on “non-work” time, but realizing that all the things that we label as “nothing” simply because they have no material manifestation in our world are actually worth infinitely more than things we value simply because they have a dollar figure attached to them.
Every Monday, I take a couple of bags of garbage (Something) and I put them inside my garbage cans and I put them out on the curb. A garbage man comes and takes that “Something” in the cans, and leaves me with “Nothing”. I pay him for this. Therefore, I must value “Nothing”.
You are right, I would not recommend trying to manifest “Not having cancer” because that will simply manifest cancer. I am more pointing out that not having cancer is valuable. We simply need to give this state of “not having something” a positive name, such as “perfect health” and then manifest that.
Maybe another way of making my point is this. Have you ever heard someone say that their parents or grandparents came to North America with NOTHING? Two dollars in their pockets and nothing else. They had to start from “scratch” with “nothing”. If they had “nothing” how did they create something out of nothing? Just because they came with no material possessions, doesn’t mean that they came with nothing.
Even accountants struggle with this one. Sometimes you’ll see someone buy a company with zero tangible assets for a lot of money. Why? Because the company may have brand recognition or a reputation, which are simply “concepts” which exist only in the minds of the public and not in the hands of the corporation selling it’s assets. Accountants call this “Good Will” and sometimes it’s worth millions of dollars on financial statements.
There *is* value to “nothing”.
I agree. “Everything” (which includes nothing) has value. It’s our perception that gives it value. I can’t tell you how many times I heard this week:”Perception IS reality”.
Hey Remember ~ 50 years ago; Las Vegas was an empty Desert. 100 years ago; so was Los Angeles. Those are two very good examples of nothing, until someone had a vision.
Interesting thoughts. Reminds me of somin Ferriss said in 4 Hour Work Week, “Would you pay 40 dollars to not work a full work day? I would and I do.”
You’re right, that’s an interesting idea. I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts about this sorta thing more.