The Twelve Components of True Wealth

True wealth is much more than financial wealth, although financial well-being is definitely a significant part of it. The first and most important component of true wealth is having a positive mental attitude. People who lack a positive mental attitude are miserable, despite whatever money they may have accumulated, while people who maintain a positive mental attitude attract wealth to themselves.

The second and next most important component of true wealth is sound physical health. You can lose all your money and recover more than you lost, but if you lose your health you’ve lost something that may never be regained. Spend time on maintaining and sustaining your health by eating healthy food and exercising often.

The third component of true wealth is harmony in human relations. Harmonious and peaceful relationships, both in the family and then with business associates, lead to good will, a good reputation, cooperation and peace of mind—a personal state of well-being.

The fourth component of true wealth is freedom from fear. No fearful person can enjoy life or its perks. Fear robs you of the ability to enjoy life to your fullest capacity and imprisons you in a dark place where there is no peace of mind or joy in being alive.

The fifth component of true wealth is the hope of future achievement. It is this component that gets you out of bed every morning to pursue your dream of success. Without hope for the future, you are poverty-stricken even if you are sitting on millions of dollars.

The sixth component of true wealth is the capacity for applied faith. The capacity for applied faith is your ability to believe in the dream you have for success to such an extent that you actually do something to make it happen. Applied faith is acting to make your dream a reality, while unapplied faith is merely wishing for something to happen for or to you without doing anything to make it happen.

The seventh component of true wealth is willingness to share your blessings. You cannot have true wealth if you’re stingy and completely self-absorbed. The truly wealthy person gives to and helps others achieve their goals.

The eighth component of true wealth is to be engaged in a labor of love. True wealth is only experienced by those who are doing something good that they love. There is nothing in the world more satisfying than being able to do what you love and know that what you are doing is benefitting other people.

The ninth component of true wealth is to have an open mind on all subjects and toward all people. The truly wealthy person does not think that the world is only as she believes it to be. She is open to learning from others, listening to their opinions, and not judging them for not seeing the world as she does or believing in the same things as she does. She accepts people for who they are, not for what she believes they ought to be, in her opinion.

The tenth component of true wealth is complete self-discipline. The truly wealthy person is self-directed. He is not driven by the whims and demands of other people, but by the goals he has set out to achieve. That is why he has mastered complete self-discipline: he refuses to allow any outside influence to distract him from the task of achieving his goals.

The eleventh component of true wealth is wisdom with which to understand people. Your life in the world, in your family and in your business consists of interacting with people. To gain true wealth, you must first study the people with whom you interact. But studying them will not give you the wisdom to understand them. The only way you can gain the wisdom to understand people is to put yourself in their place and deal with them from their—not your—point of view.

The twelfth and final component of true wealth is financial security. It is not an accident or an oversight that financial security is the last component of true wealth. Every component that comes before it paves the way for financial security and guarantees that once you have the financial status you desire, you will be able to maintain it by treating everyone by the standard of the Golden Rule.

True wealth begins on the inside spiritually before it manifests outside materially. Strive to accumulate spiritual wealth internally, and as you do, you will accumulate material wealth externally.