subject: A True Definition of Wealthy: Do You Consider Yourself Wealthy? [print this page] A True Definition of Wealthy: Do You Consider Yourself Wealthy?
One day I was curious what the dictionary's definition of wealthy' is. So I found that wealthy' meant "having a large amount of money or possessions." Another definition I came across for wealthy is "having an abundance or great quantity of something."
Growing up being wealthy meant you either made a lot of money and/or you have accumulated a large quantity of it. In this article I'll describe a different perspective of what wealthy is and how you will see yourself as wealthy even if you don't have a lot of money.
Consider yourself wealthy because of the following:
Look At Your Heritage From your parents, grandparents and even your great grandparents. Look at everything, good or bad, that was passed on from generation to generation. Did your parents or grand parents practice good nutrition? If so, you were a beneficiary of that knowledge and as a result your parent's life and your life will be extended for another 10 to 20 years. As another example let's say that your parents didn't practice good nutrition and because of that lack of knowledge your parents died prematurely from heart disease or other factors related to poor lifestyle choices. Because of this event you realized that you were going to educate yourself on healthier lifestyle choices including proper nutrition and exercise. Now what did you gain from all this? Well, in either case you were able to acquire valuable knowledge about leading a healthier lifestyle that can increase your life expectancy by multiple decades. Now ask yourself what is that worth?
Look At Your Country If you grew up in the United States you were exposed to the free enterprise system where you can start from scratch and build a fortune like Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Sam Walton, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Michael Dell. I could go on and on. What price tag could you put on that? Today we enjoy the benefits of air travel that we didn't create. We enjoy learning from institutions that we didn't found. We benefit from medicine we didn't discover. What is all that worth?
Look At Your Experiences All your experiences, good or bad, have taught you lessons. These lessons are spring boards to greater successes later on in life. Your experiences can be shared with other people through books, movies and class room settings. Your experiences should be treated as capital so you can invest in the future with what you have learned from the past. How much is that worth? How many lives have been enriched because of your experiences?
Look At Your Circle of Influences From your closest friends, to family members, to teachers and business partners. What have you learned from surrounding yourself with them? The books that you read, to the instructional CD's you listen to all have made a contribution to your intellectual discovery. Think about all the knowledge you seek out or while listening to someone's advice when you are facing some form of despair. This experience will help you survive and then succeed. What price tag can you put on that?
Look To The Future If you're a goal seeking individual, think about how your future will be different from today. Can you envision a better life? What goal will you seek, plan and achieve for a life better than today? Think about everything you will have to learn in order to achieve your dreams? Won't that make you a better person all around? How many people will benefit from you achieving your goals? What is that worth?
All the knowledge and experience from the above examples are filled with true abundance. From acquiring knowledge, developing leadership skills, to parenting, marriage, discovering new ideas, traveling, becoming a teacher are just a few experiences that are full of abundance that makes each individual wealthy in their own right.
So, do you fall into this new definition of wealthy?
