What Would You Do If Money Didn’t Matter? It’s Not a Midlife Crisis

Bonny Morlak
3 days ago
2 min read

What would you do if money didn’t matter? It’s not a midlife crisis, it’s a clarity problem.

Maybe your life looks good from the outside: career, family, even some of the dream boxes ticked. But inside, you feel like something is missing. This isn’t about failure. It’s about alignment. And Ikigai, the Japanese idea of a “reason for being”, is one of the sharpest tools I’ve found to help reset your direction.

What Would You Do If Money Didn’t Matter?

Ikigai asks us to imagine a life where money is never the obstacle. Picture a magic wallet that always has one dollar more than you need.

Buy the house, travel the world, help your family, tick off the bucket list. Fast forward five years. You’re used to the wealth. What does a normal Tuesday look like? Who’s next to you when you wake up? What do you spend your day doing?

That thought experiment strips away excuses and forces clarity. It shows you what you’d actually want if survival wasn’t on the table.

Why It’s Not a Midlife Crisis

A lot of people call that sense of emptiness a midlife crisis. In reality, it’s not. It’s a lack of clarity.

Most of us confuse stability with being alive. We get stuck in comfort zones, busy but unfulfilled. Ikigai reframes that by combining four circles:

What gives you joy
What you’re good at
What the world needs
What you want in abundance

When those circles overlap, life shifts from “is this it?” to “this is it.”

The Science Behind Purpose

I’m not a believer in “manifestation magic,” but I am a believer in science. My friend, a brain researcher, explained how the Reticular Activating System (RAS) works. It’s the brain’s filter that decides what information is important.

When you know your North Star, your RAS starts surfacing the right opportunities. You suddenly notice doors that were always there. That’s not magic, it’s millions of small decisions stacking in one direction.

The Ikigai Workshop in Sydney

And here’s the kicker: you don’t need decades to figure this out. In just 150 minutes, you can find the clarity you’ve been chasing.

I’m hosting a live Ikigai Workshop in Sydney on October 1st, 2025 at Canva Space, Surry Hills. It’s designed to help founders, creatives, and leaders find their purpose and leave with a practical game plan.