There’s a harsh truth to reality: Joy doesn’t pay the bills. Doing what you love cannot possibly earn you what you want, because earning requires sacrifice. This is the truth we have accepted. This is the truth we hand down through generations.

Unfortunately for reality, there have been thinkers from every generation who’ve been willing to challenge the status quo. People who turn the disempowering “truth” of, That’s just the way things are, into the empowering exercise of, I wonder how things can be. And it is this spirit of intrepid thinking that inspires the question, How CAN joy pay the bills?

Go ahead, ask yourself that question. When you reach for an empowering question instead of reverting to an undesirable “truth,” you give your mind something to work with, rather than something to worry about.

So here are seven ways joy can pay your bills:

1. When you become more joyful your opportunities multiply.

People love being around people who are a joy to be around. That only makes sense, right? If you become a joy to be around, you’ll get more opportunities to do more cool things. And when you have to start saying no to opportunities because your day is too full, people will start sweetening their offers; opportunities for a chance to share yourself for free turn into paid opportunities share what you already love to share. And when you add more joy to people’s lives, they’ll want to add more joy to yours. They’ll help you create more opportunities to receive the compensation you deserve for being the joyful person you’ve allowed yourself to become.

2. There is a market for joy.

People have been trying to trade money for happiness ever since the advent of currency. If you allow yourself to become the most joyful expression you can be, people with money will be willing to pay to discover what you have.

3. Money adds certainty to expectation.

If you go to a bar with a pocket full of money and tip really well, you can expect to get your drinks just the way you want them. If you go to a bar empty-handed, your chances of even getting a single drink drop dramatically. While there’s certainly a chance that someone might buy you a drink, that will usually never happen unless they see you as someone with something to offer them in return. They see a value in spending their money on you. They’re interested in getting to know you or they just wanted to see you smile.

Similarly, when someone hires me as a coach, you can bet your ass I’m going to give them all I’ve got. My best possible service. But if someone just emails me out of the blue, while it’s possible I could spend hours writing a well thought out response that benefits them tremendously, chances are my response will be much shorter; and while I’ll almost certainly read what they have to say, I may not even respond. If you’re serious about working with me, and want serious results, why wouldn’t you pay? Why would you risk getting only a partial response to a problem that’s vexing you? Why wouldn’t you want to invest your money and get some skin in the game to make it clear to yourself that you’re committed to the growth you seek?

The same principle applies to you, whether or not you’re self-employed. People are willing to pay more for experiences that will help them feel better. People are willing to pay to ensure they’re getting the product, the service, or the employee they really want.

4. Giving is a two-way street.

The more joyous you are, the more you have to give. The more you give, the more you get in return.

5. When you’re being joyful, you’re not spending money trying to fill the void.

Much of the stuff we think we need is really just a substitute for the joy we seek. It’s amazing how little we need when we can start providing that joy for ourselves. In our world we tend to think of the good providers as the people who earn good money; but when you can learn to be the joy you seek, you provide yourself and those around you with all the things we try to get money to buy. You stop seeking out distractions to fill your day with and start filling your day with yourself.

Plus, a penny saved is worth more than a penny earned. You won’t have to pay income tax on that unspent penny, but you will on the one you have to earn to replace it.

6. Joy is congruent with the things that bring you joy.

If having money brings you more joy than not having money, then aren’t you more likely to have money if you’re when you’re being joyful?

Let’s put it another way, are you more likely to find betters ways to earn money when you’re in a state of joy or in a state of worry? When we’re worried and desperate we settle for less than we’re worth. When we’re joyful we start seeking out opportunities that reflect what we know ourselves to be worth. And we’re worth a whole lot more to the world when we’re joyful and shooting for the starts then when we’re kicking around at the bottom complaining about how much we hate our job.

Not only that, being joyful lowers your tolerance for feeling less than good. The more time you spend feeling really good about yourself, the less comfortable you’ll become with feeling like shit. The less comfortable you are with feeling like shit, the less time you’ll spend in circumstances that make you feel that way. You’ll be amazed at how resourceful you can be when you’re no longer willing to put up with circumstances you find yourself in. And equally amazed by all the opportunities you didn’t see available to you because you were too busy thinking that your current situation was just the way things had to be.

7. Joy changes the game.

We’ve all told ourselves thousands of times, “If I could only have this, I’d be happy.” But what if you could find a way to be joyful before having the thing you think you need to be joyful? What if you could have a joyful outlook on your financial situations even when you’re in debt? What if you could feel good about your ability to make money without yet knowing how you’re going to do it? What if you could start appreciating what you already own without needing to reach for the high of bringing home something new?

When you can accept that it’s possible that your circumstances don’t dictate your outlook, you can begin looking for solutions that are independent of your circumstances. You can start choosing your outlook rather than letting your circumstances make that choice for you. And you’ll soon realize that it’s not your circumstances that create your outlook, but your outlook that creates your circumstances.

When faced with a choice, we will always choose the option that appears best to us at the time. Not always the option that we believe is best for us, but the option that seems closest to what we want. When we improve our outlook and focus on what we really want, we improve the way our options appear to us and avail ourselves to improved opportunities.

If you’re stuck in the game of “I don’t have enough,” or “I’m not good enough have or do what I want,” then it’s time to change the game. You can’t win at life by thinking negative thoughts about yourself and then expecting positive results. You have to take your outlook off where you are and focus it on where you want to be. You have to take your focus off what you hate about where you are and start appreciating the things you really love about your life right now.

Joy changes the game the moment you realize that there’s nothing in between you and your joy but the thoughts you’re thinking right now. Start thinking better feeling thoughts and you’ll start playing a better feeling game. Start playing a better feeling game and you’ll find it easier to think better feeling thoughts. Joy is cyclical, but only when you recognize joy is the thing that you’re after. When you take your focus off paying the bills or getting the new toy and start putting it on how you feel, you take the power away from your circumstances and focus it on the outlook that creates them. That’s how you change the game. That’s how you change your life. That’s how joy can pay your bills.