True Wealth – Defined.

True Wealth is a topic that’s been on my mind lately.

I think it’s because I have been challenged over the last couple years by this and have been trying to sort through my own definition of true wealth and its implications for my life.

In 2007 things were going well. Business was increasing, I was making more money and I had grand plans for taking it to the next level.

Then the 2008 Economic Tsunami hit!

And just like a lot of others, I had to deal with the aftermath. I had to evaluate our spending, savings, and ultimately what was truly important.

I firmly believe God used the Great Recession to check my priorities. In a weird sort of way, the recession was good for me!

And that’s when I realized that something needed to change.

I Can’t See, The Wipers Won’t Move Fast Enough!

Have you ever driven through a torrential down pour?

You know the kind where the rain is coming down so fast and is beating against the windshield so hard that it’s nearly impossible to see?

A few months back we were coming home from visiting some friends and we drove through a nasty storm on the highway. It was freaky. I wanted the wipers to move faster to keep up with the rain, but they couldn’t – I finally had to pull over because I couldn’t see a thing!

I’ll admit, during the worst part of the 2008 market meltdown, it was very tough for me to see beyond each hour of the day.

As a financial planner, I was feeling the weight of clients’ dreams, goals and investments on my shoulders – there were some days I felt so horrible that I just wanted to pull off the side of the road and wait for the storm to pass.

Every day, I heard story after story from panicked clients looking for answers to things that were so beyond our control and yet affected each one of us.

It was painful.

I don’t say that looking for sympathy, I simply want to give you an understanding of the journey I’ve been on to realize a huge life lesson that I hope others will learn too.

I Can See Clearly Now…

The rain is gone. Thank you Jimmy Cliff for summing it up perfectly for me.

Once the markets began to simmer down a bit, I began to think critically about what I had witnessed.

We weren’t out of the woods yet in terms of the economic crisis, but I started considering what was most important in life and in business.

I started working through a definition of True Wealth.

I started this blog as an extension of what I was thinking through and as a way to help others with personal finance and more importantly, understand the foundation of building your financial house.

I also reworked the mission and vision statements, revised the goals and reordered the priorities for my business to incorporate my understanding of True Wealth.

And I’d like to share my learning with you.

True Wealth and the 3 P’s

So here’s what I came up with:

True Wealth is not defined by commas or net worth – it is characterized by the quality of relationships; pursuing your passions and living life with a purpose. In other words – it’s the pursuit of People, Passion and Purpose!

Or the 3 P’s as I’m calling it.

Understanding True Wealth encourages the pursuit of what’s most important, which improves happiness, enlivens the soul and blossoms contentment.

People

At the end of the day, life is about relationships. Unfortunately, we seem to forget that truth so often just like Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart did as well.

Sadly, he didn’t realize it until he was on his death bed.

How are you doing with investing into your important relationships? I know I need to continue to work on this.

Passion

What are you passionate about? If you could do anything, what would you do?

Those are the things that enliven the soul.

Whether it’s helping the poor; giving time to charity; using your personal finance learning to help others understand how to save money; using your passion of capturing memories on film to start a photography business (like my wife did); or using your creative talents for woodworking, cooking, writing or any number of other things.

Use your natural creative talents to live life with passion.

Purpose

Lastly, True Wealth is taking those passions you’ve identified and figuring out what sort of purpose you have with those.

Why are you here? What were you created to do. We all have a purpose.

True Wealth is figuring out what that purpose is and using your passions to build into people!

So that’s my journey. A long road, but a good one. And a lesson that I hope I continue to learn and you do too!

What Are Your Thoughts?

What do you think True Wealth means?

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