True Wealth Part 2

“For wealth & success are to be attracted by the person you become…” — Jim Rohn

Part 2

Losing everything you have acquired virtually overnight is often a very difficult pill to swallow. As a matter of fact it takes a good amount of time to assimilate what has even happened prior to being able to begin thinking about what course of action you need to take. The truth is before one can start on that road one must travel another road of emotional and psychological recovery.

Like I said previously, although I didn’t lose my children, I still felt like Job. It becomes quite easy to feel sorry for yourself when all your stuff starts disappearing or is being taken and you didn’t do anything wrong to make it happen or at least from your own personal view point.

When I look back now, it was just material stuff. I still had my wife and children; I still had my health so really, what was the big deal? The big deal was where I put my importance. The big deal was where my heart was and it was on acquiring and having material stuff. The Bible says, “For where you heart is, there will your treasure be also.” All of the emotional drama and upheaval I suffered was due to the importance I put on all of this stuff. MY OWN PERSONAL VALUE was in what I had, not in what I was and whose I was.

I have obviously had traumatic things happen to me in the past and when things of this nature did, it was always been my modus operandi to take some time, and get off by myself to be alone. During these few days I meditate and think the whole thing through. I have also had a few of these alone times where I have been so angry and so upset I found myself yelling at God. As bad or sacrilegious as this sounds, believe me God knows how you feel so, it is best to get it off your chest besides, in doing so it clears the heart.

Anyway, after being alone out by myself a few days I came to the stark realization that what had been lost was just “stuff.” It dawned on me I didn’t have any of the stuff when I started so; it shouldn’t be that hard to get it all back. It wasn’t what I had been getting as far as the accumulation of stuff; it was what I had become that was most important. Once again I am reminded of something Jim Rohn said, “Don’t let your business or job, make something FOR YOU rather let it make something OF YOU!

What Mr. Rohn said came back to me loud and clear. All of a sudden I recognized stuff didn’t make me and it couldn’t break me unless I allowed it. What I needed to do was get back get on the horse, and though I had been bucked off, it was time to get back on. The ride might be different for a while since the nice saddle and fine stallion had been stolen, but with the right attitude that would not be for long. The horse I would now ride may be old and run down, but I had to get on and get started. I had to get back in the game of life. I knew it would take a lot of work as well as optimism, but I also knew I could do it.

What helped me to deal with this was the recognition of three things:

1. The loss was only material things, which could all be replaced.

2. The need to recognize that good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. The Bible puts it like this: “The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike.”

3. The value was in me: who I am and whose I am. It did not lie in what I had accumulated.

I came to recognize I was the one with the value. I recognized MY value was not in the stuff I once had in my possession. Since I had what it took to get it in the first place all I need do was apply the same principles; it would all come back…AND IT DID and plus more. Going through this and responding properly helped me to learn how to plan for the rain or lack of it. The rain is important and necessary to help the crops grow, but I needed a tank to hold water for the times of drought and a system to carry the excess away when there was way too much. The crops, the tank and the drain system were all part of what was already in me, which made me the one of value, not the stuff. Though the crops, the tank or the drain system could be stolen or destroyed; as long as I had my health and ability to think, reason, dream and create then I had the ability to get back anything, which was stolen or destroyed.

Finally, how one responds to what happens will determine the outcome. Instead of allowing what happened to take away my ability to think, reason, dream and be creative, I asked God to help me through it. He did. It was as simple as that. I humbled myself by asking God for help and the next thing you know my perspective was different, my thoughts clearer and the optimism was back. I had spent my life seeking wealth and material things not realizing success was to be attracted by the person I became. What you become as you go through life is what is most important not what you get or accumulate materially. When you learn to live this way, it makes life much easier for when that which you have accumulated is lost or taken you can always get it back…because you know how you got it to begin with…

Best of LUCK as you
Labor Under Correct Knowledge…

Respectfully,

Rick Cox