When it comes to making good money and becoming prosperous, prosperity does not happen overnight—even if you win the lottery, or especially if you win the lottery. The reason why there are no short-cuts to prosperity is that there are no short-cuts to learning and gaining knowledge, and applying what one has learned, or to just living life.
Let’s define prosperity as “thriving,” rather than as the ability to spend lots of money in consuming things—a bunch of do-dads, gadgets, and thingamajigs. To thrive reflects a certain mindset, a certain focus, a kind of spirit and attitude and perspective on life. It requires an approach to life than has to do with a lot more than mere money. It’s a pathway and a journey with a destiny in mind. It also requires time, and so does the making of money.
You have a busy day. You have a lot of things to do. You make a mental check-list, you may even write a few things down. You plan: first I’ll do this, then I’ll do that, then I’ll go on to the next thing. You create a check list, an order of progression. It’s one step at a time. Thus, you plan your day. Caveat: you also know that plans seldom work out exactly as planned; but your plans still guide you, keep you on track in the face of unforeseen diversions. So you hold steady and stay the course. Hence, the better you plan, the better off you are. Planning one’s day—or week, or month, or year—one’s future, is nothing more than choreographing your action steps, first this, then that, then the other thing. It is wisdom in practice, a form of financial wisdom that can lead to lasting prosperity.
You want to prosper? Make a plan. How?
Step one: Stop and look! Look at the landscape. Where are you? What is behind you, what is ahead of you? Where are you with respect to life’s transitions, the stages of life: School, marriage, children, age, health, developing skills, waning abilities, sudden surprises—remember, however well you plan your life, there will always be that unexpected “anything could happen at this point” variable—the unknowable and unforeseen. It’s all part of the landscape. Try to get the big picture. Then note where you are in that picture. It’s sort of like the maps at your local mall with the little red star that says, “You are here.” Place yourself in the landscape that you see. You are here!
Now consider that one of the biggest factors in this landscape of yours is invisible but clearly marked. It is called TIME. As I said, it’s invisible but very well marked—as in minutes, hours, days, years. Do note where you are in your landscape’s time warp. As we all know, time waits for no one. But neither does time deliberately speed up or slow down for anyone. A day is a day, and an hour is an hour, no matter how you slice it.
No! I am not going to now say that “time is money.” Far from it! Time is much, much more than money. Time is living, loving, relating, discovering, learning, playing, funning (is that even a word?), sleeping, working, creating, dreaming, imagining, worshiping, glorying-in. In short, time is LIFE! This is why one is unable to take short-cuts to prosperity. For, prosperity involves all of the above—in one’s given life-time. “But,” you say, “Money is what allows me to have all those things.” And I say, “No, not necessarily, especially if you are only focusing on the making of money by means of get-rich-quick schemes.
So, “You are here!” But where is “here”? Well, what do you do with your time? There is a certain amount of time that you must give to basic life functions. You eat, sleep, and work. What else do you do? You exercise, play, read, relax, and entertain. What else do you do? You wait. You wait in line, you’re put on hold, you crawl through traffic, you wait for your number to be called, you hurry-up to get there and then you wait your turn. What else do you do with your time? You engage in relationships, raise a family, commute, celebrate, mourn, wonder, wander, question, grieve, groan, rejoice, laugh, cry, live, and then you die. It all takes time, happens within time.
Invest your money in terms of life’s stages and rhythms; but more importantly invest your time in terms of purpose. In terms of money, plan how you spend, save, give—with purpose. When you think of life as a journey, and you plan well for that journey and its end result, you have the power to steer your course, even in the face of surprises and variable unknowable’s. When you map out a journey, you command your money rather than money commanding you. What do you do with your time? How do you go about earning money in that time? How do you spend it, save it, invest it? A thriving, prosperous life understands its place in the passage of time and manages time and money and life accordingly.
Practical steps:
- Reject easy money, fast track, get-rich-quick schemes toward becoming prosperous.
- Take an account as to where you’re at in life. How much do you earn and spend how much debt and savings do you have? Look at the landscape, where are you, where have you been, where are you heading.
- Look toward the horizon, define your destiny. Where do you want to “end up”? Choose your pathway, map out your journey. How are you going to get there? Define your purpose, your reason for being. Suggestion: seek God and get to know Christ and His teachings. Seek and ask for His guidance. He will respond.
- Be realistic and practical. Get financial advice if you don’t know where to begin or how to make a simple budget in order to take control of your unruly finances.
- Believe that the steady discipline it takes to get your finances in order is actually well worth the time and effort—in the long-run. It is just a matter of time. Be patient. Stay the course, keep on the path. It is a journey. And you will thrive.
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