When you think of wealth it’s natural to think of money.
We associate with wealth with money so much, that the connection is so natural we make it without even thinking.
This is even truer in modern times where we are flooded with photos of the rich and famous on Instagram and their lives are plastered across our TV screens on reality TV shows.
The accumulation of money has become the be-all and end-all in society. We are encouraged to work longer hours to earn more money and to be ruthless in our pursuit of it.
While there is nothing wrong with wanting to have more money, it’s hard to live without it, after all, money is just one aspect of wealth. There are many different ways we can measure and it doesn’t just revolve around money.
You can be wealthy in regards to your knowledge. Arguably a wealth of knowledge is more valuable than a large sum of money in your bank account.
There is also the wealth that comes from being content with your life. We live in a consumer age, where we are encouraged to pay the latest and shiniest gadgets. However, these items do not make us wealthy.
In fact, the opposite is true. If you can survive without much, then you will be much more content than the person who tries to fill their life with items that have little value or meaning.
Money, Money, Money
The traditional paradigm of looking at wealth is how much money someone has. The more money they have, the wealthier we consider them. We are only looking at one side of the story, we are not seeing the full story when we do this.
Wealth has many different aspects that we need to consider. You may have all the money in the world, but if you have no meaningful relationships are you truly wealthy?
I’m sure a lot of people would trade money if it meant they could be in a loving relationship for the majority of their life. I’m sure most of us would agree that you cannot put a price on the relationships you have with those closest to you.
We often consider those with little or no money to be poor, but even then, we could be looking at things the wrong way. It was the Roman philosopher Seneca, who said the…
