Being Rich and Happy – It Ain’t Easy
…and it ain’t hard, if you want it, really want it, like air.
Big Daddy's Yellow '72 Impala
Let’s see I’ve been reading “How To Be Rich and Happy” for many a week now. I even admitted that I had my happy and just didn’t recognize it.
That picture there is of my grandfather. He kept popping in my mind as I was writing this post. He wanted a brand spankin’ new car. He went and bought it. He lived so many Rich and Happy moments in that car blasting those Blues 8 Tracks.
I lived just as many Rich and Happy childhood moments sitting in the front seat with him.
He took care of it like it was a baby and to him it was. He drove that car until he physical condition stopped him from driving it. It purred like a v8 kitten from 1972 to 2002.
Looking at that picture tells me he knew something about the Rich and Happy Matrix and the Rich and Happy Return.
And now Tim and John have decided to do another type of thing. If you have $119 (a book and shipping costs) and are willing to use it to buy a copy of “How to Be Rich and Happy”, they will donate 60 books to a charity of your choice in your name or the name of someone you’d like to honor.
And the charity gets a certificate with your name on it, or whomever’s name the gift is in.
It’s one of their “Whatevers”, to get a million copies of their book into the hands of the people who could use it most.
And I have to say, my reading and working through this book has been eye opening and I thought I had my eyes pretty wide open already.
We are all story tellers and “…our stories are only true if we make them true by believing in and living them.” pg 149
What I believed was the story I saw myself living, not the story I wanted to be living. There is quite a chasm between the two in my head, yet here in the real life behind these words and pixels, the gap is not that big. It is definitely not a chasm. The story or the words I’d been using to tell the story in my head made the gap appear to be a chasm.
It’s just a little leap. It’s scary. It means, for a few suspended moments, I am airborne with nothing solid beneath me. And then it’s over, if I take the chance.
That is something “How To Be Rich and Happy” is helping me consistently decide upon, whether to take the chance.
The ability to make yes decisions based on my values and Big Five for Life is much more fun than wondering what other people are going to think about me and my actions.
Is “How To Be Rich and Happy” worth what I paid for it? In all ways yes. Even if all it ever brought me was a rich and happy memory of my grandfather. (That’s not all it’s brought me though.)
I’m still not done reading and there will be more in two weeks.
Until then, how about giving yourself the warm glow associated with helping others and put 60 copies of “How to Be Rich and Happy” into the hands of the people who receive help from your favorite charity.
