From Fear to Eternity

What happens when we start thinking beyond our own lifetime?

I’ve been thinking a great deal lately about what wealth is actually for.

In my work in client meetings over the last 33 years, I’ve spotted trends, ideas and conversations that repeat.

For our lives to flourish, we need to know what matters to us and what gives us a sense of purpose. This can shift as we move through the various identities of our lives. What once gave us meaning and a sense of purpose may fall away, to be replaced by something else.

We have several identities, and they may each change. Child, adult, partner, son, daughter, parent, grandparent, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, friend, colleague, stranger. The story we tell ourselves about each of these identities creates the fabric of our lives and steers the relationship we have with ourselves.

We are all storytellers. Observing, creating, retelling. Most of it is subconscious until we choose to bring it into our awareness, or some outside event does it for us, forcing us to notice.

Something else I’ve spotted with clients is the stories they pass down to the next generation. What does this money mean? What is it for? What story does it arrive with, either spoken or unspoken? Is the story in the mind of the receiver the same story intended by those making the gift?

People sometimes equate money with love. Others with fear.

Same money, different story.

Looking more widely, if we are lucky enough to have surplus wealth and we have helped our children, is this an opportunity to help our communities? If so, will this be a one-off donation or a legacy that could last for generations? Perhaps for an unlimited length of time?

What about the place we all call home? The one thing we all have in common: Planet Earth. What is our wealth doing to look after this home, now and for decades to come? What stories would we tell ourselves if we catered for the next seven generations, or seventy, or seven hundred?

Such thinking stretches the mind beyond our own lives, reaching into Eternity.

A concept hard to comprehend if we’re simply trying to make our money last to the end of the month. I’m sure many of us have been there, even if we’re not there now. That memory, and the fear that came with it, might be the reason we built wealth in the first place: protection and security.

If we have that, what is wealth for now?

Perhaps it’s time to widen what we mean by wealth.

How’s this for a start?

True wealth is what enables life to flourish across generations, communities and the living Earth.

I’m experimenting with these ideas, and I’d love it if you joined the conversation. 🌿