Nothing Is As Good (Or As Bad) As It Seems!

We often think it would be good to win or inherit several million dollars. Why? For starters, we could pay off all our debts, travel around the world, purchase that magnificent mansion we have always wanted, acquire the automobiles of our dreams and obtain just about anything else money can buy.

Would it really be a good thing for us? I dare say it could be very bad for us unless we knew and had learned certain things. The foremost would be just how this type of lifestyle would affect our character and personality. How would it change the way in which you treated everyone with whom you came in contact?

Would you treat your spouse and children the same as always, or would you have a totally different relationship with them? Would you keep all of your old friends or dump them and find a different class of people with whom to associate?

You would find that in the long run great wealth does not change you or other people. It only magnifies what is already there. If you are a kind and generous person, you become kinder and more giving. Should you be grumpy and stingy, you become grumpier and tighter with your possessions.

Sudden wealth can be good for us so long as we know how to manage it. We can pay off our debts and gain that much peace of mind. We can have more time for self-development and improvement. Our living conditions can be much improved. We can be more generous to our favorite charities. We could spend more time with our families and our favorite hobbies or pastimes.

Or, we can do as many people would who have suddenly come into great sums of money and run out and purchase everything under the sun. They wind up (temporarily) with a magnificent home and automobiles, fancy clothes and jewelry, travel the world and go on a spending binge.

It is too late when reality strikes. The money is almost gone and now they are faced with the upkeep of the fancy home and cars and lifestyle which they so rapidly adopted. It becomes only a matter of time until they are worse off financially than before they came into this great amount of money.

Is the loss of your job and income good or bad? Depends on how you look at it. The loss is bad because you can no longer pay your bills or purchase essential items for you and your family. The loss can be very good because it forces you to find another job, which will probably provide either more income or satisfaction than the old one.

This same concept of good and bad can be applied to just about everything you will encounter in your journey through life on this earth. It is your perception of it that makes it good or bad (and gives it the power it may have over you).

I believe it was Shakespeare who said, "Nothing is either good or bad, but that thinking makes it so." Something to thoroughly explore. nnn