We are so fortunate to live in a world of resource abundance, as the earth continues to provide for us quite generously. We have everything we could possibly need to ensure that every human on earth has clean water, healthy food, and basic shelter. How can it be that more than 700 million people on earth still lack access to these basic human needs?
I have some ideas on why, but I don’t exactly know. I do know that this inequality makes it incredibly easy to criticize humans that are harboring extreme wealth.
Some of the common criticisms that I hear, and that I might hastefully make myself sometimes, is that they are selfish, entitled, greedy, out of touch, etc. Aside from these common criticisms, there lies one that I intend to debunk today.
The one criticism of the wealthy that I truly despise is the famous, “They have it easy”.
The reason why I am the perfect person to debunk this is because I am someone who has spent most of my adult life living in financial brokenness, while spending countless hours with a handful of people that I would consider wealthy, extremely wealthy, or highly involved in communities of people within the top 1% of wealth.
One thing I can tell you is that as someone who is financially poor, I have never had to worry about some of the challenges that I’ve watched the wealthy struggle with. There are 3 major challenges that I’ve witnessed first hand from spending hundreds of hours with a handful of wealthy people.
- Having ridiculous wealth attracts greedy people like moths to a flame, which leads to a host of problems. Firstly, it makes it difficult to trust the people in your life, and it makes it even more difficult to expand your circle. It’s hard to tell which relationships are true friendship and which relationships are only there because people are trying to get something from you. If you prioritize authentic relationships in your life, this would be a nightmare scenario for you. On top of this, if you find yourself surrounded by greedy people, whether you know it or not, that frequency is likely to have an impact on you in a variety of ways. You become who you surround yourself with.
- Because you have the ability to throw money at nearly any problem, it can very quickly lead to hyper obsession with solving problems and comfort seeking behavior. Serial comfort seeking can lead to a relatively torturous existence. In the world of capitalism, there always exists a way to enhance your comfort. The basement of your house is 2 degrees colder than the main level, so now you need to fix the entire HVAC system in the house. It’s hot outside and you played a game that made you sweat a lot, so instead of drinking water like the common people, you need to find an IV company to come to your house and get you back to peak optimization level. These types of concerns are the things that consume the minds of the mega-wealthy. Something can always be made better and more efficient. When you have the money, you can afford to worry about these tiny inconveniences, which actually makes life more difficult and steals more of your time.
- You can very quickly become unrelatable to the 99%. I’ve watched some of my favorite writers and entertainers change the way they write after they have become famous and/or wealthy. I stop reading their work because it is no longer relatable. I stop listening to their podcast because their tone reflects their out of touchness. They begin to only hang out with people of similar levels of wealth, and it shows. The pool of people who have this wealth gets smaller and smaller as you accumulate wealth, isolating you further. Remaining relatable as one becomes a multimillionaire is like fighting an uphill battle.
There exists many types of wealth and abundance in this human existence. Financial wealth is simply the most quantifiable of them. Without extreme precision, discipline, and integrity, I’ve watched financial wealth come at the cost of other types of wealth that are less quantifiable than the number in our bank account.
The wealth I am talking about is the wealth that makes the soul rich:
-Abundance of trust in life and faith in the divine.
-Abundance of healthy relationships.
-Abundance of time.
-Abundance of self esteem.
-Abundance of connection to all things.
-Abundance of good feelings, such as happiness and security.
I can assure you that the struggles of the wealthy are not necessarily less challenging than the struggles of the poor, just different.
Unconsciously Attracting Scarcity
Other than the fact that I am a 26 year old that has spent the last few years almost exclusively prioritizing experiences that catapult my spiritual growth, I am financially poor because there are certain parts of me that genuinely find it deeply enriching.
I have spent the last few years consciously hating being poor, but unconsciously loving it.
Throughout this time I have had a hunch that there were some unconscious parts of me that loved being financially poor, but I couldn’t quite figure it out. The unconscious can be very tricky.
In this past February, it finally hit me why I have enjoyed my time being financially poor so much. I love being poor because it forces me to live with more integrity and be impeccable with nearly everything I do. When my back is against the wall, I am at my absolute best. When I am at my absolute best, I feel really good about myself. I feel more self esteem, more joy, and more gratitude. I am more caring towards the people and things in my life. This is the way I want to live my life and scarcity motivates me to live in that way. It shifts my focus away from the distractions within the material world, and into the essential pieces of a spiritually fulfilling life. I can’t afford to be distracted when I’m in a do or die situation, the place I so love to be. It reduces the strength of temptation, making life easier in certain ways.
I’ve left money on the table countless times, sabotaging business relationships, abandoning business pursuits, and turning down opportunities. As the danger of comfort gets close to me, I have consistently unconsciously rejected it.
Comfort makes me lazy. Comfort makes me more addicted and more distracted. Comfort makes me more susceptible to temptation. Comfort makes me all so uncomfortable.
I’ve never been fortunate enough to know what it is like to experience immense financial wealth, but I have been able to experience a temporary comfortable cushion that allows me to do the things I want to do. These times were some of the least happy and least spiritually fulfilling times in my life.
I’m currently financially poor, but I am in extreme abundance. Since I’ve realized my kinky joy for living broke and on the edge, and I’ve begun to own it, opportunity has been knocking on my doorstep. It’s funny how the universe works.
I trust that I will be able to hold it differently now since I’ve brought this part of my unconscious into my consciousness. I trust that I will one day be able to hold financial wealth as well as the high level of integrity that makes me feel ecstatic about who I am, the life that I live, and how I spend my time.
And if for some reason I can’t…
And if I must choose one or the other…
Then I’ll choose the deep peace that a humble life of alignment and integrity brings me every single time.