Trying on Prosperity

The past few months have been something of a watershed. I've really started to look at, not just our honest financial picture, but also at the attitudes that drive the choices I make. It was during this time that I realized that, to me, frugal sucks and I have to try to find another way of making sense of how we earn and spend.

Now, I know that this is something of a psychological trick. And maybe some people don't need those. Maybe some people can be rational and make logical and reasoned decisions about money. But I can't. If it doesn't make sense to me on an emotional and instinctual level, it doesn't make sense to me. It's like Ramsey's Debt Snowball: sure, it costs less in the long run to pay off high-interest debt first, but psychologically it's much, much harder than paying off the smallest ones first.

Sitting around thinking of ways to be frugal, to shave pennies off my light bill and buying generic jelly make me feel terrible. It makes me feel poverty stricken, which makes me cranky because our income is good. Worrying about every penny is just putting all this mental effort and focus on the things I lack. The things we can't have, can't get, can't do. To be clear, I realize this isn't everyone's truth. It doesn't have to work like that. But it sure works like that for me.

And this brought me to thinking about what I really want me and my family's lives to be like, financially speaking. I don't want to be frugal. No. I want to be prosperous.

Now, don't think I'm equating prosperous with rich. I don't see prosperity to be equal to great wealth or get rich quick schemes that promise a ton of money and an easy life to be the same as prosperity. No, I'm thinking more of a... well, spiritual view of prosperity. The kind that you might find espoused in the I Ching or the Bible. A way of being right with money or at peace with money. Of making smart choices and finding a way to live that allows you or your business/household/farm to grow and thrive and sustain itself over time.

I think that sustainability and thrift would naturally be a part of building a prosperous life. I think that spending less than you earn, saving for the future, and learning about enough are integral components of it. But it's not about pinching or restricting those things that bring you happiness. Prosperity it about MORE, not LESS.

It's about determining what really brings you joy in your life and doing what it takes to have more of that... without the financial and emotional distractions of those things that don't actually bring you joy. It's about focusing on how to have abundance now and abundance later. How to embrace and engender pleasure without putting the future in hock. It's about more options, more choices, and more ways of building a secure and thriving life and livelihood. Of not sacrificing on those things that truly matter to you and giving yourself permission to give. While at the same time realizing that prosperity is a long-term goal. A process and not a result. The execution of the plan. And the journey instead of a destination.

As I explore the idea of prosperity, the goal is to translate that idea into action. To extract concrete rules and guidelines and choices that help bring that idea about. Not just mental musings or philosophy without purpose, but a way of living that supports what prosperity is.

Next question: what is prosperity? What are it's elements? How is it to be recognized?