the ivy league taught me

One of the most important things the Ivy League education taught me is to chase wealth, but not financial affluence. I'm talking about time affluence. I made a video recently talking about one of the most important life lessons I learned from a psychology class I spontaneously took as a college senior. A lot of you resonated with it, especially the part about hedonic adaptation and what most high achievers get wrong about happiness. Another concept that I learned in that class, time affluence, also sheds light on what today's hustle culture and corporate culture get wrong. Time affluence is really just the feeling that you have enough time in your day to do whatever you want. Relax, enjoy time with friends. It sounds simple enough, but it's actually such a luxury in today's day and age of technological advancements, this job market, the increasing cost of living, and the list goes on and on. So, so many people feel time poor, which is genuinely dangerous because research shows that it drains your energy and clouds your judgment, making it even harder for you to get ahead, especially financially. However, while the tactics for becoming more time affluent are pretty straightforward and not that hard, I feel like it's hypocritical for telling you to prioritize time affluence over doing hard things. Especially as someone who was raised to work hard as an immigrant and has afforded opportunities that so many other people, because I put in more hours of work than a lot of other people. The way I wrap my head around it is, I accept that there are certain seasons of my life where I really lock in on the grind, prioritize my growth, even if it means I don't feel balanced or happy every moment of every day. But there is a difference between intentionally choosing to go all in on a specific goal for a period of time versus defaulting to being busy all the time because you never really stop to ask yourself what am I doing this for. So to me, time affluence means I do less, and I focus on doing things that are aligned with my goals and values. But it also means that I'm making sure that however I'm spending my time is a choice that I've thought through and intentionally made for myself.