As you know, a traditional sentiment at the start of the year is to wish others a Happy, Healthy, and Wealthy New Year. No doubt you’ve exchanged this sentiment yourself. Of course, as you made an effort to implement your new goals or resolutions, you probably didn’t give this exchange further thought.
This year could be different. In the spirit of this sentiment, I propose that you make ten choices, in addition to your other goals or resolutions, which will help you stay focused on happiness, health, and wealth.
The choices I’m recommending come from a changethis.com manifesto, titled 10 Unwealthy Habits written by Alicia Castillo, interim CEO of the Wealthing Group. Each choice is actually what she describes as a “vaccine” against the unwealthy habit in question. The choices are:
1. Be grateful. Focus on what is going well in your life, and avoid the unwealthy habit of feeling sorry for yourself.
2. Be free. Avoid the unwealthy habit of greed by giving freely and fairly for what you enjoy in life.
3. Demand the best of yourself. Pursue what you are passionate about and avoid getting stuck doing things you don’t like.
4. Control your own happiness. Regardless of your financial situation, find things that give you pleasure; avoid measuring happiness with money.
5. Fix an amount you spend on pleasurable things. Allow 10% of your income to spend freely on things you enjoy; avoid spending more than you can. (Also allocate at least 10% of your income to investment.)
6. Apply knowledge and planning to manage all of your resources. Knowing you will be able to afford things you want later helps you avoid the instant gratification trap.
7. Be creative. Instead of complaining, inject creativity into the way you live your life, manage your resources, and interact with others.
8. Look internally. Focus on creating the life you want, without comparing yourself to others.
9. Break the tie between wealth and money. By making the best use of your time to find pleasure, success, and joy without spending, you begin to see that money is secondary to happiness.
10. Feel love. By participating in family relationships and sustaining and nurturing others on the basis of love you enhance your own sense of value and belonging.
In short, achieving happiness, health, and wealth has more to do with your way of engaging life than it does with the amount of money you have. These choices, while important at any age, become critical at midlife and beyond. So, cultivate a wealthy outlook, for now and for the future.
Contact me if you are at midlife and want to work on developing a plan for a future that is happy, healthy and wealthy.
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