Can You Handle It?

Do you really want to be wealthy? Do you think you can handle it?

We have all heard stories of people who have accumulated millions of dollars and yet their lives are in ruin. Would you call them wealthy? Prosperous? Fortunate? I know I wouldn't.

It's almost enough (and for many people it is enough), to send us scurrying back in the direction of just getting by, where we're safe from the big, bad spectre of money (or so we think). After all, if money can do such damage to other people's lives, we don't want any part of it, right?

Wait a minute. Is money really to blame for their misery? If money did all that damage, how was it done? Have you ever seen money do anything of it's own volition? Of course not, because money has no volition. It is neither good nor bad. It is neutral. It is merely a tool that can be used for positive purposes or for damaging ones, depending on what resides in the heart of the person using that tool, just as a hammer can be used to build a house or to smash someone's skull. It is the person wielding the tool, and not the tool itself, that holds the intentions, good or bad, and that takes action according to those intentions.

Having money only brings out and magnifies what already exists in a person. So, a person that is choosing to be mean and stingy just has more to be mean and stingy with. And a person who has decided to be loving and kind has greater opportunities to express that love and kindness with the accumulation of wealth.

Of course, having a lot of money does present us with greater responsibility, and this is another reason so many of us avoid it.

One of the things that becomes necessary in order for us to allow ourselves to prosper, is to allow ourselves to grow bigger than the problems that may present themselves as we grow wealthy.

I remember when I was managing a hotel. I noticed the growth that occurred that allowed me to move up from a line employee to a general manager. I looked up the corporate ladder and saw the growth that would be required to make it all the way to the top. And I realized I could do it, if I wanted to. Mentally, I had already overcome the challenges that would be required to climb that corporate ladder. But I realized something else important. For me, the ladder was propped against the wrong building. Even if I made it all the way to CEO, I would still be a corporate employee, and I would still have to do it according to someone else's blueprint.

But the point is, I realized that what separated the CEOs from every other corporate employee was the way they looked at things and the size of the problems they were able to handle.

First of all, CEOs don't think out of the box. They never see a box. In place of the box seen by most, they see a vision of what can be and what can be better.

Second of all, they are able to handle a great amount of responsibility , which also leaves them open to the potential for huge mistakes and problems.

So, I concluded that the ability to run a company (or even a country) is based on the ability to grow larger than the enormous problems that may present themselves and the knowledge that one can recover from a mistake of any size. Once you know you can handle anything, you can take on the job with confidence.

It is the same with money. You will not allow yourself to take on the job of being a steward of large amounts of money (I say "steward" because we are not truly the owner of anything. We can't take it with us.), until you have convinced yourself that you can deal with whatever "problems" may arise from having money.

And what makes you think that you can't? Just because you have not done a thing in the past doesn't mean it is outside the limits of your capability. The only thing holding you back from trying is the fear that it is beyond your limits. And that fear is nothing more than a mental image you have created in your thoughts. It is no harder to create a mental image of succeeding than it is to create a mental image of difficulty.

You may be familiar with lack and struggle. It may be what you have always known. Hey, you know you can handle that, because you have already done so for years.

But where is the growth in doing what you have always done? Within our comfort zones, we don't grow. And when we are not growing, we are deteriorating.

So, what's it going to be for you, growth or atrophy?

The decision is yours. Grow into it.