“I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. Rich is better.” ~Sophie Tucker, U.S. (Russian-born) vaudeville singer~
God only knows how many times people I’ve met people – including myself when I self-talk – who tell you that they don’t care about money. They then put some obscene labels on it as being evil or sinful, and flippantly dismiss all those with big ambition as being selfish and frivolous.
God only knows that most of these same people are being dishonest to the extreme with themselves, often without being aware of that fact.
As Zig Ziglar, a noted motivational speaker, philanthropist-entrepreneur and life coach has said: “Money isn’t the most important thing in life, but it’s reasonably close to oxygen on the ‘gotta have it’ scale.”
People with small or no dreams are poor in more ways than in just the money sense. When they awaken in the morning it is only to drag themselves to the job and pay off those damn bills and mortgage or to lounge around and forget that weekday grind on weekends.
This is called poverty living, even if your income tops $100K and you drive a Maserati sports car.
Our values about money are often derived from our contact with people who don’t have it. They don’t understand how to obtain it, so they condemn those who haven’t yet demonized the green stuff and still find it to be a worthy measure of adult achievement.
Then there are those who will tell you that their Bible or holy scriptures clearly call money the root of all evil. Mother Teresa was made a saint, yet her good works were totally dependent on…MONEY. Without it, this saintly woman would have died obscurely in a slum. While she may never have counted it herself, the nuns and fathers of her church and other followers religiously did!
What is your attitude towards money? Is it a means to an end or the end? If the latter be the case, no doubt you lack and you have alienated many. If it is the former, then no doubt you have a dream bigger than yourself and money is a way in which you can fully express your heart.
Our flicker of time alive can and should make a difference. Until you follow your heart, however, life will be a meaningless, incongruent ebb and flow which expresses nothing of your essence.
Money is a measure of just how much you have achieved and just how much you will achieve. Don’t demonize it. Use it to become a full expression of YOU.
