Wealth and Success
01/04/2010 by Colin Schedler
On my journey so far I have introduced you to some inspirational people and some of the books they have written. However, as this journey is about creating wealth for success, I think it is important to tell you what wealth and success means to me on my journey to financial freedom.
Defining Wealth and Success
To me, wealth is about more than just material possessions and money. It is about having an abundance of good things in all aspects of life – physical and mental health, relationships, spirituality and how you spend your time.
Without wanting to sound like a clichéd mantra, I am wealthy because I am loved. I am wealthy because I live in a country of opportunity, which has a stable economy and government. I am wealthy because I have a healthy and able body and mind.
Without these key things, for me, any great financial wealth would lose meaning and reason.
One of my favourite quotes for defining success is; “The achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted”, from the free dictionary. As with wealth, my own personal definition does not relate solely to financial success, although one would hope that achieving this would greatly enhance the feeling of success in other areas.
One of my great successes this year (2010) has been to start my own blog and, at the time of writing this post, seeing it ranked at 661,000 in the world in just 10 weeks. Success, to me, is about achievements with personal value and meaning and not just grand achievements such as scaling Everest or becoming famous.
Measuring Wealth and Success
History measures people’s achievements in retrospect and provides us with figures to aspire to and study, but your own personal reality, the people you choose to surround yourself with and the choices you make in your everyday life, are a far more immediate measure of your own wealth and success.
History also has a habit of leaving out the mundane and ordinary and propelling a person’s notoriety to a far greater level than the people in that person’s life may have seen them. By being aware of ourselves, our actions and who we spend time with, we can see where we are in our lives, and perhaps where we can make changes in order to improve ourselves.
A light-bulb moment in my course with 21st Century Academy was when it was suggested that if you add up the net wealth of the 5 people you spend the most time with and divide it by 5, then you are likely to come out with the figure that represents your own net wealth.
It is not a case of dumping old friends and looking for new ones, but opening yourself up to the possibility of spending time with wealthier people (and I don’t just mean financially wealthier) and learning from them. Having a mentor to look up to and to learn from is a great step to achieving a wealthy and successful life.
I believe that if other aspects of wealth and success were as measurable as money then we could probably do the same calculation in terms of someone’s moral standing, happiness or health. It could be an interesting experiment.
Wealth and Success in Motion
I think it is a valuable exercise to consider your own definitions of wealth and success. These are aspirations that many of us strive for, but without a clear understanding of exactly what it is we want to achieve, it is hard to know which direction to take. What does wealth and success mean to you?
If personal fulfillment, health and happiness are top of your list, rather than just money, it becomes easier to set out on your journey to creating wealth for success.
In my next post I will continue this theme of self awareness and discuss gratitude and how becoming grateful for all the things, people and experiences I have in my life has helped me on my journey so far.
Colin Schedler © 2010
Hi Colin,
Great post mate. You totally hit the nail on the head. Wealth is not just about money and material items which alot of people seem to get hung up on. Wealth to me is measured by your feeling of fulfillment as this is one of the keys to the meaning of life.
Can’t wait until your next post.
Jon.
I agree Colin. In nutrition terms, you are what you eat. In success terms you (generally) will be as successful as the company you keep. Will Smith use to hang out with friends that constantly got into trouble. He soon learnt that in order to become successful you must surround yourself with like minded people. Today he’s one of the Hollywood superstars.
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Hi Colin,
I really connect with your meaning of wealth – “it is about having an abundance of good things in all aspects of life”.
That is the same meaning that wealth has for me. It cannot always have a monetary meaning as there is so much that actually impacts on somebody’s life.
Many sometimes forget this fact and focus all of their time and energy in the wrong areas of their lives.
Cemil´s last blog ..Finding Topics To Write About
Thanks Colin,
Very much enjoyed reading this post.
For those who do not understand wealth, they always equate it to money and not other aspects of their lives. Money does help create wealth and money also helps us give back but without our health…we have nothing.
I can think of much I am grateful for in my life and I am far from rich in a money sense at this stage…”watch this space”
Regards, Eileen.
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Hi Colin – off the top of my head, wealth and success to me means quality relationships with family and friends, a healthy body and mind, the desire to want to get out there and grow as an individual and living in a country that allows me to have and do all that. I’m sure I could word it better with more time and maybe come up with a few other things, but I think we are on the same wave length. Looking forward to your post on gratitude. As I’ve grown, I’ve come to realise that being grateful for all the great things we already have in our lives is crucial for us to be able to move forward and grow further. Great post Colin. Thanks. Jan
Jan Littlehales´s last blog ..Raising Great Kids – Cycling
Hi Colin,
Let me say, you are a natural born blogger, and i really enjoyed your post. We tend to focus to much on monetary wealth and forget about all the things we have to be thankful for. Thanks for the reminder Colin.
I look forward to your next post.
Regards
Belinda
BelindaO´s last blog ..10 Tips for Internet Marketing Promotion
Thanks Belinda – much appreciated.
Hi Jan,
As you say, gratitude is crucial in moving forward, yet many people would rather look at the things they lack in their lives. I try and make it a habit of reminding myself daily of all the things that I am grateful for.
Hi Eileen,
I like the saying: “We are not happy because we are rich, we are rich because we are happy”. We need to change inner selves before we can change our outer environment. By being grateful, healthy and happy, our ability to become richer in a financial sense, becomes a lot easier.
Hi Cemil,
We need to teach the younger generations the importance of developing areas of their lives which will help them to become successful. This means placing less emphasis on the importance of monetary aspects and more emphasis on developing character, values, gratitude etc. If we do this then surely financial wealth will follow.
Hi David,
I commend people like Will who were brought up in rough neighbourhoods and managed to make a success of their lives. We’re fortunate in this age to be able to find mentors and get advice online which can help towards making our lives a success. So from that point of view we don’t have to physically seek out the right people to associate with to enhance our lives, although this will no doubt help.
Cheers Jon,
If only I’d been taught a lot of this when I was growing up, who knows where I’d be