{"id":137752,"date":"2012-07-04T04:00:33","date_gmt":"2012-07-04T11:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/?p=137752"},"modified":"2023-06-18T17:04:06","modified_gmt":"2023-06-18T23:04:06","slug":"what-is-wealth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/what-is-wealth\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Wealth?"},"content":{"rendered":"
The dictionary defines wealth as:<\/p>\n
Society usually views the “wealthiest” people in society as those that have the most things or the most financial resources. From third-world countries in Africa and Asia, to the wealthiest nations in the civilized western world, the concept is universal. Recently I read a news blurb that the CEO of Oracle, worth a whopping $36 billion, purchased the island of Lanai with the \u201cpocket change\u201d of $600 million. Whoa!<\/i> That’s wealth!<\/p>\n
With such a common definition of wealth being mainly material, it seems that many of us simply brush over the deeper significance of the dictionary’s second definition: “abundant supply: profusion”.<\/p>\n
But abundant supply and profusion of what<\/i>? Must the answer be tangible? Does wealth have to be material or economic? Of course not. After all, even the dictionary leaves the meaning as a flexible statement. Wealth can be \u2014 and is<\/i> \u2014 so much more than for what our basic thought process allows.<\/p>\n
Wealth is abundance, profusion, and prosperity of so many things. Rather than thinking of my own wealth in strictly financial terms, I find it helpful to look at where I have abundance in other ways. For instance, I’m wealthy in:<\/p>\n
While my first two examples of personal abundance weren’t supposed to be quite so tangible, in reality they are. I’m a product of modern society. Going back to my initial idea of thinking about wealth in a different way, I find tremendous abundance in:<\/p>\n
All of us are wealthy in so many different ways. One of the greatest lessons is to stop, look around, and truly enjoy all of our blessings and all that life has to offer. A quote by 19th century author and clergyman Maltbie D. Babcock<\/a> resonates with me:<\/p>\n Better to lose count while naming your blessings than to lose your blessings counting your troubles.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n No matter who we are, honestly, all<\/i> of us have and hold some sort of wealth in our lives. Virtually none of the wealth in my life is financial. In fact, on some days it can be very hard to appreciate all that I have.<\/p>\n But I imagine that the billionaires in the world who can easily write a check to buy an island in an afternoon struggle to appreciate their financial abundance many days too. It takes work and an attitude change to stop and look around and to live out the lesson. With discipline, though, all of us can take the time each day to count our blessings and appreciate the true wealth that abounds in our lives.<\/p>\n