Hustle to later enjoy life - or did we get it all wrong?

When I grew up my parents always instilled in me that it was important to do good in school. A good education could give you a good job. A good job can give you a good income. A good income means that you have security in life and that after a few years of saving and building a career you will come to a point where you can enjoy life. When I listened to this it made a lot of sense to me.

It sounded like a proven model to a good life. So I put a lot of effort into becoming good at school and then into becoming a good student at university and at the same time I started to work and I tried to do my best there too. But then it all broke down for me. I realized that I had spent so much energy on achieving this big goal in the future that I had forgotten about the now. Since realizing this I have spent quite some time contemplating.

There are still some things I would like to do in life and one of them is to build wealth but I no longer only want financial wealth. I want wealth in my inner state of being, in the thoughts that cross my mind, in the quality of my relationships, in my health, and quite general in the way I experience the world right now. And the more I am thinking about all of this I start to wonder if we have gotten it all wrong. Maybe if I am living the good life right now I will almost by default create a better outcome for my future but in this scenario, I can skip the point where I lose my way and burn out.

I still believe that dedication and discipline have their place in this, don't get me wrong. But I start to realize that when I work on my inner state first and come to a point where all of that external bling-bling is not even essential anymore it will fall into place much more easily. I haven't quite found out what the perfect ratio will be. How much sacrifice and discipline and saving up vs fully living in the now and making this now moment matter is the way to go? I don't know. But cultivating a peaceful mind and a happy heart for sure sounds like a good idea to me. And everything that is created from that place will carry me in the right direction. I trust that. And this will be my practice. The remembrance to not chase something in the future but to be here now. And now. And now. Because now is all we have.