Week 434 (brendan@brendanbarca.com)

Here's your weekly dose of Fuel Your Mind Friday where I share business building ideas, lifestyle design hacks, and inspirational content to help you thrive in your work and find purpose in your life.

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PSA: My wife and I have another blog called The Daily Buddhist that comes out every Wednesday. Subscribe here OR follow us on IG!

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A LESSON FROM EDUARDO THE RICH FISHERMAN

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I've been in the working world for 13 years. Each year my income has varied from one year to the next (sometimes dramatically). For the most part, in years when my income increases I celebrate and in years when it decreases, due to poor sales numbers or an employment gap, I consider it a loss. For nearly a decade, I have fallen into the "I need to make more money each year" mentality.

Maybe it's my competitive nature from youth sports or thanks to the invisible income ladder the corporate world puts us on, but either way you slice it I find myself racing to beat my prior income each year. This isn't necessarily a healthy race either. In fact, most years it's left me gasping for air by the end of it.

If you're wired at all like me (and if you read this blog there's a good chance you are) I want to share an analogy that has helped me begin to escape the "I need to make more money each year" mentality.

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A Lesson From Eduardo the Rich Fisherman:

Eduardo is a fisherman who lives with his family in a small village on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. Each morning he wakes up before sunrise and rides off into the Pacific with his fishing rod. He fishes from 5:00AM to Noon and then heads home for lunch with his wife and kids.

Some days he catches just enough for that day's meals. Other days he catches enough to sell at the local market. Any fish that can't be eaten or sold that week he puts on ice in his big fish freezer. After each season, he opens the freezer and counts all the extra fish he brought in.

One season he caught an extra 30. The next he added 50 to the freezer. And in the third season he added 25. He smiles to himself. Eduardo has plenty of fish. He can feed his family for months to come and even plans to give a few fish to his friends.

Eduardo is a rich man.

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Now compare Eduardo's mentality to your own. Once you cover living expenses and meet your savings & investing goals each year, are you satisfied? Or do you find yourself wondering why you weren't able to bring in more fish than last season?

If you find yourself wishing you brought in more fish, that's OK... I've been there too. In fact, I still deal with this year-after-year "fish hungry" mentality.

What we need to do is start thinking about any extra money we bring in each year as Eduardo thinks about his extra fish. If Eduardo catches 30 extra in year #1, 50 extra in year #2, and 25 extra in year #3, that's 105 extra fish!

If we save & invest $10K in year #1, $30K in year #2, and $20K in year #3, that's $60K we have now put away for our future. And thanks to the magic of compound interest, our money will actually grow overtime unlike Eduardo's fish (sorry Eduardo!).

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The bottom line is that, for a healthier and more sustainable approach, we need to stop comparing this year's "catch" to last year's. If we are living comfortably, we don't always need to catch more fish than last year. After all, what's our goal? To have more fish in our freezer than anyone else? How silly.

Go out there every year and do your thing. Go fishing. But try to do it without the crippling "I need to make more than last year" mentality. Instead, try to channel your inner Eduardo.

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Thanks for subscribing,

- Brendan

​Let's connect on LinkedIn!

​brendanbarca.com​

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PSA: My wife and I have another blog called The Daily Buddhist that comes out every Wednesday. 🙏 Subscribe here 🙏