How can Bitcoin help you fulfill your life needs?
The topic of personal development and improving one’s own life is often discussed. To keep up with the pace of today’s world and its changes and not lose ground in life or the world of work, we should constantly work on ourselves, master new challenges, eat healthy, exercise more, and meditate at least three times a week.
The topic of finance is mentioned significantly less often in this context. Since the financial crisis in 2008, money has been so cheap, and interest rates almost at zero. Around this time, a new alternative finance initiative was also created that has now been running smoothly for 15 years and generates new transaction blocks every 10 minutes. A decentralized alternative to the existing paper-based fiat money system.
In my essay, I try to explain my view of how I manage my personal development through the topic of Bitcoin and independent education and which areas of my life already benefit from this topic. This analysis or I call it my path, is based on ten areas of life that each of us values with different priorities in the course of our lives and wants to contribute to their fulfillment.
These areas are:
- Human needs
- Health & Vitality
- Spouse or Partner
- Family
- Friends
- Education & Learning
- Work / Business
- Society & Communities
- Activities & Hobbies
- Finance
I’m certainly not that proud that I found my way to Bitcoin and a better understanding of the current financial system so late (not until early 2022). But I am happy by the fact, that I understood the topic of Bitcoin and soon the functioning of the current financial system pretty fast and did not lose any money in any crypto hype coin. Beware of that!
So let’s take a look at everything I’ve learned in these two years that isn’t only related to the topic of finance.
Education & Learning: Fiat money system & Bitcoin basics
It is important to say that before you get into the topic of Bitcoin, an understanding of how the current financial system works would be very beneficial. Why? What if I told you that Bitcoin was developed to solve the problems of the current finance system?
For beginners, I recommend watching Ray Dalio’s video series on YouTube. Look for: “How The Economic Machine Works” or “Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order”. If you’re interested in history the book: “Changing World Order” which tells the fascinating story of the world powers of the last 500 years and their handling of finances and money is a highly recommended read.
If you feel strong enough, you can read the “Bitcoin Standard” from S. Ammous. Here you will learn the history of money and the basic principles of bitcoin. A highly recommended read.
I started listening to a podcast about Bitcoin over two years ago. The guys (Manuel & Jonas) from “Understanding Bitcoin” continue to do a very good job and I can only recommend the beginner series with 10 episodes on Bitcoin Basics.
Whichever path you choose, make sure you have time to process what you have learned. In my opinion, the basics of Bitcoin are easier to understand than the problems and challenges of our FIAT money. Learning is a process that takes time and energy. Just as Bitcoin can be understood as time and energy. But more on that in another article. What you learn here will be the solid foundation for your future in the Bitcoin space. This is important!
Finance: Investment & Banking
Bitcoin is a really big topic. So big that you could spend years trying to understand all its facets and you would never be done. But it would be a shame to ignore the practical experience and not benefit from the early opportunities. If you have understood the basics and want to go further, now would be the time to get your first Satoshis and start investing right away. There are already plenty of suitable providers and opportunities. Investing for the long term via a savings plan or adding Bitcoin to your portfolio may not pay off immediately. Still, in the long term, a small savings plan or portfolio allocation can be worthwhile. Patience and a HODL mentality can work wonders here.
Once invested and when a bigger amount has been collected, you should take ownership of the coins. Take ownership? What do you mean? Quite simply. The coins you have on an exchange or with the provider do not belong to you. Only with a hardware wallet are you able to take ownership of the coins and sleep peacefully. “Be your own bank” is the often quoted saying. “Trust is good, own control is better” is another piece of wisdom. You want to have your money under your control and not entrust it to the goodwill of third parties. I hope that’s the case for you. If not, you should invest enough time here and do your homework!
Society & Communities: Conferences and Meetups
If you’ve already made it this far, you’re in a really good position and performed well. Congratulations! Now is the time to get together with other like-minded people if you haven’t already done this. There are Bitcoin Meetups in almost every city, and in Europe, there are now around 10 major conferences where you can meet exciting people, make new acquaintances, and pay for your food or drinks with Lightning. Don’t be shy and go out. Share what you have already learned and listen to what others have to say. This will help you get one step further and after all, we are writing about personal upgrades and development here.
Spouse or Partner: Secure the future of your loved ones
This one is tricky. Convincing others like your partner or family to use Bitcoin or that the current system is doomed to fail is difficult. Explaining, convincing, providing examples, and repeating the whole thing again and again can help. I’ve already had some success here, but I’m far from finished yet. So far, I am not aware of any successful set of rules according to which one must proceed to orange pill others. If a universal solution comes along, I will immediately sit down and write an article about it.
Life needs & Bitcoin
But back to the beginning. I said something about areas of life and their fulfillment. To make the whole topic easier to understand, I have defined ten areas of life for myself and considered how these are already influenced by my experience and knowledge of Bitcoin.
After more than two years of intensive examination of the topic of Bitcoin, the areas of Education & Learning, Finance, and Activities / Hobbies have benefited the most. I have never spent so much time on one topic in my life and educated myself further than in the past two years. The topic of finance is already benefiting too. And finally, Bitcoin has become a kind of hobby for me. Who would have thought that three years ago?
Areas that can never be associated with Bitcoin are also activated. The fact that I can be my own bank and have control over my money, makes me sleep better and feel more optimistic for the future. This has an impact on my psychological condition, improves my inner peace, and boosts my mental health.
Human needs such as self-realization are on another level in our lives. Satisfying these takes a lot of time and energy. However, Bitcoin has the potential to support people’s self-fulfillment once a healthy financial system is established and humans will have time to develop themselves and fulfill greater life goals.
What are my plans for the future?
I have been mapping my Bitcoin journey using a price chart since 2022 (see below). Every year, new topics are added or new areas of life are either further developed or started. There are still two areas that I have yet to activate. The others are simply being developed further. The medium-term development is dated until the end of 2030. I believe it will be an insightful and exciting time.
Final thoughts
I have just drawn my path here. Your journey is guaranteed to be different and contain other elements, but will certainly be no less exciting and instructive. But the most important thing is to start! Start to understand the existing financial system and its explosive nature and problems. Study the history of money with its many facets to realize why Bitcoin is a storage medium and can store your time and energy over time. Be curious and you will not only discover a lot but in the end become much smarter and see many things from a different perspective.
I enjoyed writing this article and plan to write more articles in the future. About what? The different areas of life and experiences that I will go through with the support of Bitcoin. Through this article, I also want to approach the topic of educating others and try to pack my experiences and knowledge into exciting stories and make them available to many people free of charge.
If you liked this article or think I should follow sharing my experiences with others, please let me know this in the comments. A small donation could also be possible as part of the Value4Value principle. I would like to thank you in advance!
Until the next article.
Marek
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References & Sources
- R. Dalio: “How The Economic Machine Works”
- R. Dalio: “Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order”
- R. Dalio: “Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order — Why Nations Succeed and Fail”
- S. Ammous: “Bitcoin Standard”
- Manuel & Jonas: Understanding Bitcoin — 10 episodes on Bitcoin Basics
Donations: Lighting — marosbi@strike.me or Tipping page
