Prosperity Project, Phase 2: What is Wealth?

Greetings once again, prosperous friends!  Congratulations to those of you who successfully completed the entire 28 days of the Prosperity Project, where we became accustomed to spending ever-increasing amounts of dollars.  Those of us who made it through the entire course found that our relationship with money is a little more relaxed now.  More importantly, we are much more clear on what our goals are for our life.  On the one hand.

On the other hand, although we know where we would spend money if we had it, we are still a bit unclear on how to actually earn that money.  Well, that is exactly what we will be exploring here in Phase 2 of the Prosperity Project.  I don't actually yet know the answer to that question, or I would be making more than $11.00 an hour.  But I know that it is possible, because I see others around me who are comfortably well off, able to travel, happily working high-paying jobs.  I know that if some people can do it, then we can also learn to do it ...  even in what is euphemistically known as "this economy."

This blog is called The New Book of Clues specifically because I don't have all the answers.  What I do have is a whole bunch of clues.  So over the next few weeks we'll be exploring those clues, to see if we can uncover together the secret of attracting wealth.  Before we begin, though, we should take some time to explore what we mean by "wealth."

Sure, one measure of wealth is having a lot of money.  But I've met some very wealthy people who were miserable.  For example, I know one money-rich woman who is so lonely that she pays for a companion.  She is grossly overweight because she compensates for her emptiness by eating lots of comfort food.  This woman doesn't DO anything.  She married money, and adds no value of her own to the world every day, unless you count spending money.  She spends her day making shopping lists, and then pays someone to go buy the stuff and put it away for her.  In my mind, that women may have money but she does not possess wealth.

On the other end of the spectrum,  I have a friend who has almost no money, and doesn't really want any.  When his trailer was destroyed a few years ago he had no means of replacing it, so now he lives quite happily in a tent in a friend's backyard.  He has an old truck that runs, because he is an excellent mechanic.  The truck gives him a dry place to keep his things, and gets him around town.  This particular friend works odd jobs, but nothing that keeps him too tied down.  Every morning when he wakes up he sits quietly on the riverbank while he sips his coffee, deliberately not thinking.  Some people might call this practice meditation; he would tell you that people's brains get them into an awful lot of trouble, and it's best to give them a time-out every day so they don't get out of control.  This man spends his days doing acts of service.  He attracts people who are sick and alone, and he sits with them.  It's a simple act, and one which doesn't cost him anything but time.  But I've witnessed his healing presence first-hand.  He may be gnarly looking, but when I was the one sick and alone, I welcomed his presence.

Of these two people, I would have to say that the one with no money was the wealthier of the two.  I have to be careful here, because it is examples like these that feed into my false belief that only corrupt people have money, so in order to be pure at heart you must also be poor.  I'm learning through this Prosperity Project that this really isn't a true assumption.  Money is a tool, like a hammer or this computer.   Good people can have money, just as good people can own a hammer!

So, if wealth isn't money, what is it?

Wealth is the freedom to be, do and have anything that your heart desires.  Money definitely helps, but sometimes there are creative solutions to getting what you want that don't require much money.  In Phase 1 of the Prosperity Project, we each learned that what we really wanted was to build a workspace for ourselves filled with all the tools we could ever need for working on our creative projects.  We also wanted the freedom to travel, and we absolutely all wanted to use our money to help friends, family, and even total strangers to live their dreams.  Although we had lots of money to spend, we found we weren't really interested in the money; we were more interested in the freedom that the money gave us to fully live our lives.

True wealth cannot exist without a sense of deep gratitude and appreciation for everything that we have.  It is one thing to have what you want; it is quite another thing altogether to want what you have.  Wealth is in the eye of the beholder.  My tent-dwelling friend says that he's wealthier now than he was in the days when he had lots of money, because he has learned to see his world with a grateful eye.  I urge you to look around at all that you have and to see it for the wealth that it is.  Remember that the Law of Attraction teaches that we will attract that which we consistently focus on.  If we look at what we have and focus only on the things that we don't have, we will continue to attract more lack.  If, however, we learn to look on what we currently possess and see it as wealth, we will begin to attract more wealth.

OK, so money is tight, and the lights might get turned off this week, and we might run out of fuel oil before the end of winter, and people might get sick with no way of going to the doctor, and the car might break down with no way of fixing it.  How can I look at all this and see wealth?  My answer is, don't focus on that part.  Focus on what you do have.  Do you have people or animals that love you?  Do you have a place to sleep at night?  Can you take a hot shower?  Is there hot coffee when you wake up?  Are you happy, at least some of the time?  Is there beauty around you?  Do you have harmonious relationships?  Focus on those things, because they are definitely included in the definition of wealth. 

See yourself as already wealthy.  That doesn't mean picture yourself with a lot of money, it means to see yourself where you already are, and to see, and appreciate, and be grateful for the fact that wealth is already yours.  Then watch that wealth grow.

Now it's your turn to talk.  Every day I will close with a question for you to answer.  Here's today's question:

IN WHAT WAYS ARE YOU ALREADY WEALTHY?