When balanced with your values the drive to succeed can empower your life. Or you can follow the herd.
The herd wanted over night wealth. Many drew on investments and then watched the market crumble. Others emotionally hang onto stocks rather than cut short their losses.
History repeats the story. In the 1600’s the tulip market would last forever, then there was the gold rushes and the technology boom. We are bombarded with images of the rich and famous. We hear of the self made successes of Bill Gates and convince ourselves they made it, so we can too. Besides, we need to keep up with the Joneses. We forget that many dot com millionaires lost their wealth and get sucked into get rich quick schemes.
State lotteries in the USA fund government services. “With cutbacks in federal spending, pressures on state lotteries to provide revenues for government programs have increased” states the 1999 USA Gambling Impact and Behavior Study.Those who can least afford it are an easy market.
The same study pointed out that Casinos found 140 lottery outlets in a poor and just five in wealthy neighborhoods. Of course, if you win the lottery and you don’t spend on friends and family you’re a snob. If you do spend it, you’re a fool for wasting your opportunity to get ahead in life. No wonder, 80% of lottery winners have lost it in two years.
Of course, money can have a positive effect. Parental wealth influences children’s educational attainment and college enrollment. Net worth predicts offspring’s homeownership in young adulthood and homeowners are more likely to have adolescent offspring who stay in school and teenage daughters are less likely to get pregnant states a study by Lori Cambell of the American Sociological Association.
“The belief that high income is associated with good mood is widespread but mostly illusory,” wrote Alan B. Krueger and psychologist and Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman.
People have a “focusing illusion” about what they think will give them happiness.
“If people have high income, they think they should be satisfied and reflect that in their answers” Krueger said. The problem is when success is valued more than principle. For example Kruger and Kahneman observed wealthy people often spend insufficient time enjoying life and are more tense.
We say money doesn’t buy happiness, but we don’t act as though we know it, said Jessie O’Neill, who at 22 inherited 3 million dollars.
“Inherited or sudden wealth can create a false sense of entitlement, a loss of future motivation, and an inability to delay gratification and tolerate frustration” she said.It can damage your self esteem, self worth and self confidence.
O’Neill borrowed the term affluenza to describe the effect wealth can have on people in her book The Golden Ghetto: The Psychology of Affluence.When workaholic parents are preoccupied with the external success and ignore the internal the isolation can be passed onto the children.
“Ultimately children quit forming bonds; they just stop because it’s too painful. That goes into all parts of your life” said O’Neill. “If that ability to form an attachment bond is damaged it carries all the way throughout your lifetime.”
We need to transcend the never enough addiction and live with purpose now.
We always fall back to what we value says John Demartini. The challenge is knowing who you are and how to be of service with your passion.
If we are spiritually drifting our life will show it. You must honestly evaluate the unexaggerated and unminimized reality of every aspect of your life and remove your negative hang ups over money. You then can see the possibilities in yourself and in others.
“There is never a lack of money for anyone who wants to serve” said Demartini who asserts we must remember we are on a spiritual and material quest.
We need to know what we are to the world and believe we deserve to be paid for it. So what is it that you will do even if it is painful for you? What is it that you want to do that is congruent with our higher values? What are your talents? What do people praise you for? What do you do better than others?
Write 1000 reasons to contribute, to save and invest money and build a fortune. Write, brainstorm, analyze. Find out what is it that so inspires you that you could keep doing it and never retire?
If you set goals congruent with your values you will succeed. If your desires are not consistent with your values will die the death of intense infatuation. So will you reassess our values? Or numb yourself with another toy?
