“The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination” John Schaar
The credit crunch. Funny isn’t it? So what do we do now? No idea! Have we been living in a dream? I’m not really sure. Should we be worried? What’s the point! Mee? I feel a mixture of excitement at the prospect of a ‘new age’ around money and wealth, a new frontier, but ever so slightly anxious in my effort to not absorb the fear that currently surrounds us. I think its a time to slow down, go inside, be patient and wait. But let’s not get stuck in the ‘waiting room’, it’s not a good place to be in for too long! So we need to think about how will we make our wealth now?
Sat with my visionary hat on I sense that the movement towards owning our own destiny rather than putting ourselves in the Corporates hands is where we must continue to move towards. Our dependancy on institutions needs exploring at a deeper level and we need to start to take ownership of our unique talent and potential and be much more creative in taking responsibility for building and growing our own personal wealth. Us humans are creative beings, survivors (well, not all of us I suppose) but IT IS in the human DNA and so we need to trust it.
When you sit back and look you start to realise how for far too long the majority of us in the Western world have been ‘educated’ in the ’system’ - the so called route to ’success’ (and that usually inferred money). I’m not sure it was ever ‘real’ but it’s the map we are given on arrival and blindly we tended to follow it. There has been the odd individual who didn’t buy into it (the entrepreneur, the maverick, the rebel with a cause) but essentially we have been brought up to believe a ‘job’ and an ‘honest’ living is where our security lies. Some even connect their sense of identity to it to. How many of us like to tell people what position we hold or who we work for (particularly if its a BIG corporate giant or we are in a position of great importance).
But we are now at the edge of a new frontier and at times like this there are no rules and no set of instructions - so we have to make it up as we go along.
About four years ago I heard Bernard Lietaer speak at an international conference in London. Bernard is an international visionary specialising in economic and monetary systems speak. He spoke about the various ancient and modern civilisations and the economic systems they had in place and said that our global money system was seriously outdated and no longer worked and that it would only be a matter of time before it started to break down. Well, how right he was!
In his book ‘The Future of Money - creating new wealth, work and a wiser world’ he states “The global money system no longer works in our best interests; we need a serious overhaul of money - and our attitude towards it”.
So I’m pondering on our understanding of ‘wealth’ versus ‘money’…
In c.1250 wealth was described as “happiness” also “prosperity in abundance of possessions or riches” “well-being”. It is also described as ‘the quality of profuse abundance’.
Abundance is an interesting word. It means ‘an overflowing fullness, great plenty’.
Money in the dictionary is described as ‘a medium that can be exchanged for goods or services’ and I am starting to see that ‘money’ is essentially an energy.
So what is it we really want? Money or wealth? We seem to have attached these two things together in such a way that we almost can’t separate them out. Yet, I’ve met and known many people in life who have had lots of money and material possessions but I would NEVER EVER have called them ‘wealthy’. Alternatively I have met people who have not had a lot money or material things but they seemed to possess a great deal of wealth.
For me, wealth and presence have a strong connection. The people I have met who have great presence also appear to be wealthy. They operate within their whole potential, radiating their unique talent, which they have in abundance. It flows from them.
So is it now time to explore your wealth rather than your money?
Times are certainly a changing. Significant global changes are here in the world of money and as Peter Drucker claims:
‘Every few hundred years in Western history there occurs a sharp transformation. Within a few short decades, society - its worldview, its basic values, its social and political structures, its arts, its key institutions - rearranges itself, and the people born then cannot even imagine a world in which their grandparents lived and into which their own parents were born. We are currently living through such a transformation’
