So you may be wondering…
Table of Contents
What is dharma and what’s it got to do with financial independence?
Dharma is a sanskrit word that many translate as your “unique purpose in the world”. It’s a mission specific to you – a way of having a positive impact on the planet using your innate talents and interests.
If you’re on a financial independence path, like me, I’m guessing you might like the idea of this. In fact, one of your motivations for building wealth is so that you have more time to do more of what you really feel you should be doing, without worrying about your next paycheck coming in.
Or you might be rolling your eyes at this, thinking unless your dharma is lying on a beach drinking pina coladas in December, you’re not interested. In that case, let me just wait until your eyes return to their natural position in your sockets.
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Or feel free to read one of these other posts.
Even if you are pulled towards the idea of discovering your purpose, there’s a risk of putting off this journey of self-discovery until you reach your financial goals, particularly if you think you will get there more quickly without that distraction.
Dharma is a concept within the Ayurvedic health system. This is something I’ve been interested in for years, led there by health and fertility issues I had before we had children.
Now that I’m in going into a new phase of life (the peri-menopause) I started dipping back into these ideas and this led me down this path again. I started reading about dharma – particularly Sahara Rose’s book Discover Your Dharma (affiliate link) and thinking about how it related to my financial journey.
Now I’m here to argue that investing some time into understanding yourself better can really help your path to financial freedom, and here’s why:
REason one: Creating Your Why for FI
Understanding your purpose can really boost your motivation to save and invest for financial freedom. This is critical when you are plodding through the “boring bit in the middle”, making constant trade offs that make today a bit more difficult and a bit less fun, for the sake of an uncertain tomorrow.
If you’re doing all this just because you don’t want to do your job anymore, or for a vague goal of “more freedom” it will be much more difficult than a goal that feels authentic to you.
One of the concepts linked to dharma is the idea of the “dharma archetype”. These are a set of roles that people are naturally drawn towards, such as: Entrepreneur, Artist, Nurturer etc. You can be a mix of several, but some are usually more dominant.
For example, I’ve realised that I have a strong Entrepreneur archetype, which explains why I love project-based activities in my job and also enjoy developing business ideas. Part of my “Why for Fi” is to have the financial stability to be more entrepreneurial, running my own businesses or working freelance.
If someone has a dominant “Nurturer” archetype, they may want the freedom to be a carer for a family member, or to volunteer in the community. This is one of my stronger archetypes too, so having more time with my family is another motivation for me.
The full list of archetypes is:
- Teacher
- Nurturer
- Visionary
- Entrepreneur
- Artist
- Researcher
- Entertainer
- Activist
- Warrior
REASON TWO: Enjoying the journey MORE
Once you understand your archetypes, it can be easier to understand why you do or don’t enjoy your current lifestyle. Is your life suited to your archetype, and are you fulfilling your purpose?
To go from archetype to “dharma” you need to reflect on the “what”. What are you doing with your talents to serve others? If you are a teacher, what are you meant to teach? If you are an entrepreneur, what are you creating and to solve what problem?
All dharmas have a central aim of raising people’s consciousness, but the topic of this, and how you do it, is unique. Different people have different mediums they are skilled at, whether it’s writing, making art, speaking to others one to one…
So you can think about what subjects excite and interest you. What do you want to understand better? How can you use your passions to serve people?
I love the idea of following the breadcrumbs – not ignoring the opportunities that you want to grab, the chances to learn a skill that interests you, fostering a relationship with someone you think you can learn from, or teach something to.
I do believe that starting to think about this now will make the FI journey much more enjoyable, and even change your trajectory: helping you to create a life now that you don’t want to retire from.
REASON THREE: Supporting sustainable side hustles
Do you struggle to choose or stick to side hustles?
Another benefit of exploring this concept is that it can help you to develop business ideas that you are more likely to stick to, because they are perfectly suited to your talents and interests.
You will also build your toolkit for dealing with overwhelm more effectively – a useful skill when you are crazy enough to take on additional work, alongside a full time job and family life, etc 😉
One of my favourite parts of the Discover Your Dharma book covers the different types of overwhelm you can experience and how to deal with them. These are based on the three doshas (more archetypes I’m afraid): Vata, Pitta and Kapha. These are types of energy that are dominant in different stages of life and different people.
For example, a Vata-dominant person can be creative but have their head in the clouds and be prone to anxiety. A Pitta-dominant person is determined and good at getting things done, but can be fiery and irritable. A Kapha-dominant person might be a bit more calm and grounded, but their energy can become sluggish and they can struggle to make changes or get moving.
Based on these three types, there are also different types of overwhelm you can feel:
- Vata overwhelm where you have a hundred thoughts in your head and don’t know where to start;
- Pitta overwhelm where you are turning into a tunnel-visioned workaholic and
- Kapha overwhelm where you feel stuck, lacking ideas and unable to move onto the next thing.
When you’re working on a side hustle you can be at any of these stages and it’s useful to have strategies for these different stages.
- If you are in Vata overwhelm, with so many ideas and not knowing where to start, you really need to take action on one idea.
- If it’s Pitta overwhelm, you need to get yourself some rest, maybe get out in nature.
- If it’s Kapha overwhelm you need to build up your energy: get some exercise but also protect your energy by setting boundaries with others.
REASON FOUR: Growing your confidence
One of the key ideas that I took from the book that helped with my confidence was the idea of embracing your quirks, knowing that they are what make you unique and relatable, rather than things to be embarrassed about.
I also felt inspired by the idea that if you have an idea, “if an idea chooses you”, then you are capable of bringing it to life.
I’m sure your inner naysayer (like mine) is trying to poke holes in this right now. It’s so easy to think that just because you are thinking of doing something, doesn’t mean you will be able to do it or will do it better than anyone else.
We are going through tough times at the moment and it doesn’t feel like the right time to take risks or to try something new.
I would agree about taking financial risks, but it doesn’t mean we can’t be bold in terms of showing more of ourselves, listening to our intuition, believing we have unique value to share and supporting ourselves to take action!
If this has inspired you to find out more, I’d recommend picking up a copy of Discover Your Dharma at Bookshop.org (affiliate link – supporting independent bookshops), on Amazon (affiliate link) or through your local library if you can request it.
This post has only scratched the surface of the tools and strategies this book offers for understanding yourself and your purpose better. It’s also a great introduction to Ayurveda if you’re new to it and interested in a holistic approach to wellbeing.
If you’ve read it, I’m excited to hear what you think – please comment below 🙂
To be clear, this post include affiliate links to the Discover Your Dharma book, which means I would receive a small commission if you choose to read this book, at no extra cost to you. As always I recommend trying to get books secondhand from sites like World of Books or from libraries if you can, but this book is quite difficult to find secondhand.
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