Thank God We're Rich!

Round 5, Day 40

Knowing that we get our basic money beliefs from our parents, I was journaling about mine. My parents lived rich, but seemed to always have money problems.

I remember a time when my Mother worked for weeks to make a fancy dress for a party and it was gorgeous! The night of the party my Mother looked so beautiful. They were going to the party with friends who were coming over for cocktails beforehand. When the doorbell rang, I ran to answer it, my Mother close behind me. “Oh Fran, your dress is lovely” the woman said. I piped up proudly “She made it!” My Mother put her hand on the back of my neck, dug in her long red nails, and told me to go to my room. I couldn’t figure out why she was mad at me for saying she had made her dress.

Now I know what one of my parent’s prosperity problems was. If I had been smart at the age of 10 I could have shouted “Stop Competing!”

I wonder how many our ideas of prosperity are brought about by competition. Your friend gets a new car, or a new house, new clothes, hairdo, or electronic toy, and now you want that or something better. All the videos that came out after The Secret have fancy cars, and mansions, jewels and piles of money – telling us we can have what ever we want – and making us feel less than if we don’t have or want those things. Competition.

I once saw a coffee table book where the photographer had people all over the world, take everything out of their front rooms and put it in their front yard, and stand in back of their possessions. There were pictures of people with big screen TV’s, huge armchairs, plants, microwaves, boxes and bottles galore. And there were also pictures of people with some mats, bowls, firewood, clothes, a couple of pigs and chickens. The funny thing was, the less people had, the more they were smiling!

It is not the material possessions that make us happy. It’s our experience of life. Use your prosperity journal this week to think about where you might be in competition. Is this where you really want to be? What quality of life would really make you feel prosperous?

And Thank God we’re rich.