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Here I go again, making up words.
Somebody’s gotta do it—may as well be me, after all, I’m a wordsmith and what does a smith do? They make things. In my case… words.

BIZNIFICATION (noun): the condition in which everything becomes a business.

To BIZNIFY (verb): to turn anything and everything into something that must be monetized.

In the world today, everything is a business.

We are customers — sometimes captives — of the BIZNIFICATION system. In turn, the culture in which we live has become thoroughly BIZNIFIED.

The underlying slogan for our society seems to be:

If you can’t monetize it, it isn’t a worthy idea.

(BTW, “monetize” was once a made-up word too. Another wordsmith got away with it…so here we are.)

Underneath that slogan sit the secondary characteristics of competition, hierarchy and ranking — the ways value is determined in our society. When these characteristics combine with the constant pressure to monetize everything, they act like a wound inflicted on our culture.

These patterns developed over centuries—first, within largely patriarchal social structures and later through the rhythms of industrial society.

I’m not blaming anything, I’m simply suggesting the wound can be healed — and that healing begins with individuals.

I’ve been ruminating over this idea for quite a while. In fact, since I launched Graceing Agefully™.

I often feel pressure from fellow entrepreneurs/business owners to turn this into a “business”. It’s as if they are worried about my financial well-being. They look at me with a kind of resignation — bordering on pity —when I say:

“I am not creating a business. I am creating my life.”

My life is my work.

Real estate is my business, at the moment.

I have enough money for today and the foreseeable future, and I am excited about the possibilities of expansion in the second half of life.

That’s my philosophy.

That’s my mindset.

So, let’s get back to the BIZNIFICATION of everything.

Everything around us has been BIZNIFIED — and in many ways it has trapped us, especially my generation of Baby Boomers.

We are fully immersed in the BIZNIFICATION belief system. It’s very difficult to convince Boomers that it’s a trap you don’t actually have to stay caught in.

Here are just a few of the “institutions” that are upheld by the BIZNIFICATION mindset:

• Government
• Financial Institutions: Treasury, banks, financial advisors and planners
• The medical system
• Religious institutions
• Food production and distribution
• The education system
• Public Utilities
• Real estate (ouch!)
• Communications systems

We are simultaneously imprisoned by these systems and protective of them.

The result is a deeply ingrained belief:

Everything we need costs money,

Money has become the great divider.

The shortened and frequently quoted biblical phrase “money is the root of all evil” has been programmed into the minds of those who feel they don’t have enough — or as much as they would like.

It has divided us.

As long as we can blame the evils of the world on money…
as long as we can judge wealth and comfort ourselves with the idea that being poor is somehow morally superior to being wealthy—-

we soothe ourselves with a sense of superiority.

I call bullshit on that.

Scratch the surface of a person who claims moral superiority because they have little money, and very often you will find…a money lover.

BTW…the biblical passage is actually this:

“For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and some people, craving money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.”

Notice the difference.

We are all susceptible to loving money.

We bypass the discomfort of admitting that by saying:

“You can’t do anything without money.”

I am not denying that the structure of our world has made us dependent on money.

I am saying something else:

The best things in life are still free.

I’ll end here, for now.

Creative flow doesn’t last forever.
(That’s free too, by the way. It tends to show up when the mind is free of worry and regret. )

My hope is that this message simply makes you think for yourself.

That alone is a challenge.

Most of the time, our thoughts aren’t entirely our own.

Free up a little space in your day…
in your mind…
and in your life.

You may find that you can access something deeper — what some might call collective consciousness, where knowledge exists for everyone and everything…at zero cost.

The End (for now).

This is Graceing Agefully™

P.S. The BIZNIFICATION of the world didn’t happen overnight, and it certainly isn’t limited to one area of life.

In future reflections, I may explore how BIZNIFICATION shows up in places we rarely question — medicine, education, spirituality, food, even aging itself.

For now, simply notice where it appears in your own life.