When most think of wealth, they think about money.
The thinking goes, the more money you have, the wealthier you are.
But wealth is about much more than money. True wealth is measured by how much freedom that money buys and how much fulfillment you have in your life.
Money can buy you freedom, permitting you to do things, and go places, others cannot go. Or money can imprison you. Like a ball and chain, money can anchor you to a business or profession filled with responsibilities, obligations, deadlines and stress.
So, when you measure true wealth, you must take into consideration what type of life you have. In my two books, Change Your Habits Change Your Life and Rich Habits Poor Habits, I do just that. Below is a snapshot of a few of the things that truly make you wealthy:
- You Have a Strong Social Network – You are surrounded by family, friends and associates you enjoy being around. you interact with your inner circle on a daily basis, enriching each others lives. Your relationships act like a force field, protecting you against anything life throws at you and they act as a buffer, protecting you from individuals who do not have your best interest at heart.
- Your Life Has Meaning – You feel fulfilled because you like what you do for a living. You also generously share your time and money in improving the lives of others. You do this primarily through your work with local non-profit organizations whose cause you believe in.
- You’re Healthy and Physically Fit – You work hard to maintain your health. You eat right and exercise every day. You are proud of the way you look.
- You Fill Your Life With Happiness Events – You are engaged in hobbies and activities that you enjoy and which make life worth living.
- You Don’t Worry – You don’t allow the stress of daily living to bring you down. You have a positive, optimistic outlook. As a result you see solutions, rather than obstacles, to every problem.
- You Feel in Control of Your Life – You’ve worked hard to create the life you have. You feel you have some measure of control over the events in your life. You are self-reliant and not dependent on others.
- Your Mind is Engaged – You are constantly learning and growing as an individual. You read books in order to learn more. You constantly seek to develop new skills and new talents.
- You Sleep Well at Night – Because of your positive, optimistic outlook and your efforts to pursue a life of meaning, you do not fret over the trivial things in life.
- You Look Forward to Life – You wake looking forward to each day.
- You See Good in Others – You choose to ignore the defects in others, seeing only their good qualities.
- You Pursue Your Dreams – You enjoy pursuing things you are passionate about. This fills you with excitement each day. You look forward to the challenges you will face and you enjoy finding solutions to the obstacles that get in your way.
- Your Children Are Succeeding in Life – Because you devoted much of your adult life to mentoring your children for success, you are filled with happiness in their success as adults.
- Money Does Not Control You – You have worked hard in building a financial foundation in which you no longer need to be concerned about surviving financially. You have accumulated enough money to live the life you desire. You have very little debt, or no debt at all. You have adequate retirement assets that provide the mortar for your sound financial foundation. Because your finances are in good order, you have fewer problems in life.
- You Have Valuable Skills – Throughout your life you have been focused on developing certain skills that make you valuable to society.
- You Embrace Change – You understand that the one constant in life is change and you embrace it. You have conditioned your mind to not fear change.
- You Are Happy With What You Have – You are not focused on what you do not have. Instead, each and every day you are filled with gratitude for all of the blessings in your life.
Tom Corley is an accountant, financial planner and author of “Rich Kids: How to Raise Our Children to Be Happy and Successful in Life”, Effort-Less Wealth, Change Your Habits Change Your Life, Rich Habits Poor Habits and “Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals.”
