UPLIFT-15
How I Helped Myself
I will resume posting new chapters from Flawed Genius on September 7, 2025.
This is an everyman's update of Scott Peck's "The Road Less Traveled." Peck's book, published in 1978, is widely considered a masterpiece. It explores how we confront and solve problems.
Chapter Thirty
WANTING RICHES
Is This Your Goal?
Does anyone not want a lot of money? Among the wealthy, some are content with their wealth, some desire even more, and some make a conscious effort to use their money to help others. Most people hunger for enough money to buy what they need or want.
What is this hunger really about? Hunger for money may be about desire. Most physical world desires require money to fulfill them, including the desire to help others with their needs.
The hunger for money may be driven by a desire for power. Influence over others is the negative form of this hunger. The power to guide our lives is its positive form.
Hunger for power may also be a quest for freedom. On the surface, the hunger may be for freedom from a repressive parent, boss, or political environment. Deeper within ourselves, freedom takes on a higher meaning.
Of the many forms of riches, the surface glitter money buys is a trap. Once acquired, keeping material possessions requires more energy and can lead to obsession. The things of life are fine to have as long as we remain neutral about their being with us. An irony often plays out when people fail to find happiness in a nice car, a bigger home, more jewelry, or finer clothes. Still feeling unfulfilled, they chase happiness further into what money can buy.
Often, through losing our possessions, we discover the riches we seek cannot be found outside ourselves.
The happiness of the moment when something new comes into our lives has no depth. The more unhappy we are with ourselves, the more likely we are to seek happiness outside ourselves. Emotional pain gets old fast. Most of us hit our limit and then look for ways to change how we feel. The quick ways to alter feelings—alcohol, drugs, escapist sex, power over others, anger, buying things—are readily available. Later, we find these paths are downward spirals, turning difficult and destructive.
True happiness comes from within, from the investment of time and effort in making choices that help us grow. This happiness shows as a light within us, shining forth more vibrantly as we clear our inner overgrowth.
Money is a great tool and a lousy master. When money enters our lives, we need to use it wisely and let it leave when it must, without attachment. When we work hard to grow and embrace responsibility for ourselves and our families, we lay the groundwork for leaving our lives to Spirit. Doing so will attract riches beyond our imagination.
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