The overwhelming majority of people wish for more money. Unfortunately, it seems that the more money we accumulate, the richer we want to become. The way I see it, a wish for material wealth is one that is never really fulfilled.
Thank goodness there are two types of riches or wealth that define our lives: there’s being financially rich and there’s being life rich — one doesn’t necessarily exclude the other. You can be both at the same time, at different times, or at no time.
While there’s nothing wrong with striving to have a larger bank account, it’s important to remember that money really can’t buy happiness. Just ask Chris Farley or Kurt Cobain about that.
That’s why it’s so important to strive for having a rich life as opposed to material wealth.
Here’s how to make yourself richer in 24 hours or less.
- Be thankful for life. Every single one of us takes for granted that when we go to sleep at night, we’re going to wake up the next morning. I’m not trying to frighten you, but to make you understand how thankful you should be for every single morning you open your eyes because it’s not a guarantee that it’ll happen. I know you don’t think about it because when you wake up, you’ve already got a ton of things on your mind.
Well, stop. Lay in bed for a few seconds and just be thankful that you’ve got another day because they’re so few in number.
- Make a new friend. True, it’s tougher for adults to make friends than it is for kids. When you were a kid you could easily walk up to whomever had a new toy at the playground and he was instantly your new best friend. However, for adults, friendship too often comes with more strings attached than a marionette show. We tend to see friends as people who can help us achieve something rather than another soul to be enjoyed.
Well, life is nothing if it isn’t about relationships, and friendships are the easiest to come by if you’re willing to put forth the effort.
- Count your blessings. Okay, I know it’s a cliché, but if you truly want a richer life, then you have to be thankful for what you already have. And don’t tell me that you have nothing because no one truly has nothing. You can be living on the street with only a garbage bag full of possessions, but as long as you still have breath in your lungs, you have opportunity. The world is filled with examples of people who appeared to have nothing left to live for only to rise up and show everyone what life is all about. Stephen Hawking, anyone?
- Try living life instead of surviving it. How many of you feel like you just went 12 rounds with the champ at the end of each week? How many of you really need a weekend on the couch just to store up enough energy for Monday? If this sounds familiar then you’re not living life, you’re surviving it – and that’s no way to live.
You don’t have to fill up your entire day with work to be worth something. I’ll tell you right now, for nothing, that you could spend a week earning ten thousand dollars and it wouldn’t be worth as much as spending an hour with your kid, your wife, as a Big Brother or Big Sister, or as a volunteer to a family in distress.
Leading a rich life has absolutely nothing to do with the amount of money and stuff you leave behind when you’re gone – the universe really doesn’t care about that. Rather, it’s about the effect you had on those around you. That’s what lasts and gets passed on forever.
What little things do you routinely do to make you feel great inside?
-David