Needing less

We live in a world filled with abundance, and yet most people, if you asked them, would not consider themselves to be living richly. Why is this? Is it because a few greedy people have snatched up all the abundance and are hoarding it for their own? No, the main reason most people do not consider themselves to be living a life of richness is because they’re increasing what they need at a much faster rate than they’re increasing the value they create.

Now there are two basic ways to resolve the problem of needing more than we have. We can either attempt to get more, or we can work on needing less and on transforming our needs into choices. The problem with attempting to get more is that such attempts usually increase our needs faster than they increase what we get. So in return for our trouble, we end up being even further behind. It is a situation equivalent to borrowing money in order to pay your debts. We can never get ahead.

The fact is that most of what we perceive as needs are not really needs at all. Rather, they are strong indications of desires and driving purposes. When we start to see them as such, and relate to them as such, it can make a tremendous positive difference. It can in fact make us wealthy because it gets us to the point where we truly have more than we need.

Interestingly, the more we see ourselves as needing something, the less our likelihood of having it. Yet when we can let go of the need, we also let go of the negative sense of lack and limitation associated with it. When we no longer focus on the need for it, we can begin to focus on creating the reality of it. When we need it less, we begin, in a very real sense, to have it more.

That is why gratitude is such a very important part of successful living. Being thankful for and appreciative of what we have, puts us in a creative and productive frame of mind, which tends to bring more abundance and fulfillment our way.