The Foundation Of Wealth Is Being True To Yourself
“What lies behind us and what lies before us
are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The ancient Greeks had the saying, “Know thyself,” inscribed on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. It is only by being true to yourself that you will uncover the meaning of your life and how to fulfil your life purpose. True wealth is really about aligning your unique abilities, aspirations, passions, capital, relationships, and your daily actions towards making a real difference in your world. This is why we all live on one planet but there are over 7 billion different views of the world. Therefore, the answers to your life quests are found within your own vision of the world, not through another’s vision. We can definitely learn from each other but true change in your life will only occur when you know thyself and change your inner world to align with who you are as a person.
So what is holding you back from achieving the greatness within you? In her book, A Return to Love, Marianne Williamson describes why we are reluctant to get to know ourselves by saying that, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” Jack Canfield, the author of Chicken Soup for the Soul, says the following about your life purpose, “Each of us is born with a life purpose. Identifying, acknowledging and honouring this purpose is perhaps the most important action successful people take.” Yet on my life journey, I constantly encounter people more concerned about material things, business success, or other destinations in their lives rather than fulfilling their own true life purpose. Maybe if each person could experience what Jim Carrey said about being rich and famous, then as human beings, rather than human doings, we might be more careful about what we define as success, “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”
In regard to living with purpose, Ernest Becker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and psychologist describes man’s greatest fear as follows, “What man really fears is not so much extinction, but extinction with insignificance.” When asked what surprises him the most, the Dalai Lama said,
“Man, because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then he dies having never really lived.”
Imagine for a moment that you are on your death bed and surrounding you are all your hopes, dreams, talents, treasures, time, and desires asking you the following question, “Since each of us was unique to you, how did you use us to fulfill your purpose in life and make a difference in the world?” I doubt that your best answer would be, “I bought a big house, drove fancy cars, went on lots of vacations, and bought luxurious toys.” Unfortunately for many people that I help with their financial plans, estate plans, and business succession plans, these materialistic things are the core focus of our discussions. People would be better off remembering what both Winston Churchill and Mother Teresa said:
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
Winston Churchill
“We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.”
Mother Teresa
Everyone’s life story encompasses the profound statement by Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities (1859): “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . . .” The choices you make in your life will establish the main plot, and sub-plots, of your life story. The meanings that you attach to your thoughts, feelings, and experiences in your life will create the mood and themes of your life story. The things that you have in your life are simply sets and props that you must return at the end of your life story. Lastly, the people in your life are the players within your life story. Therefore, since you are the author, the director, the producer, and the leading Star of your own life story, should you not spend your time, talents, and treasures to make your life story a masterpiece that is both inspirational and empowering to yourself and others? After all, in regard to your own life, your life story “is the Greatest Story Ever Told!”