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How Self-Worth Leads to Net-Worth (and Not Vice-Versa)

I’ve heard money described as oxygen in our modern world, and who can disagree? Arguing that point might leave you somewhat exhausted and short of breath, with nowhere to go. We all have a desire to flourish, to thrive, to enjoy good fortune or a level of successful social status. But being prosperous is as much a state – a way of being – as it is having or acquiring. With this in mind, monetary wealth becomes only one of several important factors in the prosperity equation, along with notions of health,  happiness and spirituality. In some traditions, a prosperous viewpoint that emphasizes collectivism and the immaterial can even be at odds with ideas of a capitalistic nature, due to their association with greed.

Of course health, happiness and economic abundance can certainly be correlated, having causal effects on one another. In a bid to put together a solid piece on true prosperity, I did some scratching about and found a good number of books on good fortune. New and old titles ranged from The 4-Hour Workweek and The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity, to classics like Think and Grow Rich, along with spirituality-based books like The Secret, You Can Heal Your Life and Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential.

One book in particular caught my (third) eye, a book with the three standout words Revolution, Freedom and Spiritual included in its lengthy title and subtitles. The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom – Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying – is The Book That Started a Personal Finance Revolution (according to the cover), and is the Personal Finance Classic That Changed Forever How We Think, Feel and Act About Money. Written  by  Suze Orman, one of America’s more celebrated personal financial experts, the book advises people, “To approach money from an emotional standpoint in order to reach their financial dreams”, along with “Emphasizing the psychological and spiritual power money has in our lives.” Suze’s steps, with exercises, include Step 1: Seeing How Your Past Holds The Key to Your Financial Future, Step 2: Facing Your Fears and Creating New Truths and Step 3: Being Honest with Yourself. These were all solid teachings, as the only way to grow who you are and what you have is to begin with an honest assessment and baseline of self acceptance.

The real money in Orman’s book lies is in the discussions of Step 5: Being Respectful of Yourself and Your Money and Step 7: Being Open to Receive All That You Are Meant To Have. Why? Because after perusing this book and others, I realized that there are endless books and spiritual teachings that expound on the idea that God wants all of us to have as much as we desire. Everyone in Western society clearly lives in an abundant world with plenty to go around. Yet so often, so many of us go without. Again, why?  The reason is that we don’t treat ourselves like we deserve it. Our lives spring from our personal systems of belief, and if you don’t believe you deserve abundance, you won’t have the power to create it. It’s not a crap shoot, and it’s not pure luck. It is our fundamental attitude that allows us to work in accord with the Universe to create and attract abundance. When you focus more on your inner balance than your online balance, your  self-worth starts naturally raising your net-worth.