When you have too much month for your paycheck, then what
you need to do is realize that there is abundance all around you,
and focus on the abundance and not your lack and as night
follows day abundance will come to you. ~Sidney Madwed
Sadly, we live in a society in which advertisers and marketers constantly do their best to convince us that we need certain things in order to be happy. Day after day, we're bombarded with the basic message that we don't have enough, that we need more if our lives are going to be happy or meaningful. And unfortunately, many people accept this message as fact--they think they can't be happy with what they have already and that they need many more things if they're going to live their lives fully.
The message that we don't have enough, though, is simply an attempt on the part of someone who makes something to get you to spend your money on their products. That's it. But we allow them to convince us that we actually need something when the truth is that although we may want it, it's not necessary to us. The job of marketers and advertisers is to convince people that their lives aren't as full and rich as they could be--at least, not until we purchase their product.
What this approach does, though, is it blinds people to the abundance that they already have. It doesn't allow them to appreciate the abundance in their lives because it creates discord in their minds, a discord that keeps them from seeing how good things are because they're focused on how good things could be--if only they had this car, this brand name, this clothing, this phone. And we tend to make ourselves miserable until we actually do have those things, so when that miserable state of wanting is gone, we think that it's the thing that's made us feel better. It's not, though--it's simply that we've stopped making ourselves miserable with our desire.
When I was young, our family didn't have much. My father was in the military, so money wasn't something that we had tons of. But in our house, wherever we lived, we had furniture for all of our rooms, we had dishware and silverware and pots and pans and bowls and food with which to use them, we had a car that got us places, and we even had "luxury" items such as a television set and a stereo. And we had clothes to wear. And that was about it.
And that was fine with all of us. Of course, those were the days of far fewer television channels, so we weren't constantly bombarded with messages that we needed more, and we were able to be satisfied with what we had. And because of that, we were able to see our lives as abundant--virtually all of our material needs were taken care of, so what else did we need? Of course, there were other issues that we dealt with, but who doesn't? We were able to deal with those issues, at least, from a position of material abundance--an abundance that I believe most people today would call lack. We did go without some things, but none of those things were necessary for our survival or well-being.
These days, we have more than enough. Virtually everything that we have is modest, but it's all been affordable and it all fills exactly the function that we got it for. When I look around our house, I see only one thing that's newer than three years old, and I see many things that were bought on sale 10-15 years ago, but which we still really like. I've bought many of my clothes in thrift stores because I don't care about brand names or even if something is completely new when I wear it--and some of my favorite clothes have come from those stores. We actually have much more than what we need, but none of what we have has been bought because we couldn't get by without it. We recognize that we're quite fortunate to have what we do, and we recognize that there's a great deal of abundance in our lives. There are some things we would like to have, but that doesn't mean that our lives are incomplete or that we're unhappy if we don't have them.
"Count your blessings," they say, and they're on the right track. Doing so will help us to understand how good we have things, and just how few other things we need. When we focus on our blessings, on the abundance that we're experiencing, we're much less likely to focus on lack, and much less likely to feel that any sort of material objects can fill a perceived hole in our lives.
One trick that I've learned over the years is to wait at least 24 hours before I buy anything on impulse or something that costs more money than I usually would spend on something similar. This strategy keeps me from buying something that I convince myself I need simply because I want it. If I still think it's a good buy 24 hours later, then I'll get it--and it doesn't always have to be a strong need. Sometimes I do buy things just because I want them, like a book or a cd or clothing. Not everything has to fulfill a need. But with a waiting period in place, I find that I buy fewer things on impulse that I really don't need, and that's important to me.
Another strategy that I use is to remind myself of the things that I own but almost never use--and I ask myself if this new thing would turn out to be one of those. If I foresee myself using something very little, then I simply don't get it. Let it sit on someone else's shelf for a while.
Abundance isn't all about what we have. It's also about our perspective on what we have and how it fits into our lives. Abundance is just as much a realization as it is a situation. We have a lot in this world, and most of us could live the rest of our days with the same things that we have now, and be very happy doing so--if we were only to stop listening to all the messages that tell us that we need more, more, more. Those messages are really saying, "We want more of your money, so spend it on our product."
It's up to us to be discerning and to make decisions that are conducive to an abundance lifestyle.
People individually and collectively are entitled to life in all abundance.
El Dorado, a country rich beyond all precedent in gold and jewels, lies at
every person's door. Your bonanza lies under your feet. Your luck is
already at hand. All is within; nothing is without.
Herbert Seibert
More thoughts and ideas on abundance.
