Growing up, we often heard and were raised with the old idea, that “money is the root of all evil”. While I am not sure that this is what I was actually raised to believe, as I got older and started making my own way in life, money didn’t seem overly important to me. While my religious upbringing definitely played a part in this belief, I can’t say it is the primary thing that affected my thought process regarding money. It has been recent that I have gained an appreciation for making money and the effects it can have on life.

Recently I attended a class on hypnosis, where I did regression, now mind you… I didn’t want to do it out of fear that I would wind up hating my parents or something crazy like that. This also stemmed from a complete misunderstanding of the hypnosis process. Getting back to the story, I volunteered for regression and asked my group to find out why, as an adult, money wasn’t all that important to me and where it all stemmed from.

What came from that session was astounding! It also turned out to not be scary at all, and my fears were unfounded. At about the age of 9 or 10, I got my first paper route. I did everything right, yet the reward wasn’t what I expected, therefor it wasn’t worth the effort. From a young boy, my parents taught me that any job worth doing needed to be done to the best of my ability. I still believe that, but back then, the rewards didn’t seem to align with the amount of effort I had to put in.

I worked seven days a week. Every day, I placed the customer’s paper on the porch. In the rain, I bagged every paper, folded the top of the plastic bag over the paper and used a rubber band to secure it. This made the newspaper rain proof so I could safely get it onto the porch. I was also as punctual with deliveries as possible, since people expected to have their paper in hand while relaxing after work and before dinner and on Sunday before breakfast. I did many other little things that none of the other guys were doing that should have made a big difference. Yet it seemed my customers didn’t notice or worse yet, didn’t care.

The reward should have come at collection time when I confidently walked to the customers’ front door and rang the bell. There were a variety of responses. Some obviously paid me with no problem; they were as it turned out, the minority. Others repeatedly ask that I come back when they had money. The customers that really did the damage were those that saw me walk up, heard the door bell and wouldn’t answer the door. In some cases, I could see them sitting in the house watching TV. My only option was to stop delivering to them until the bill was paid.

Then, once while out collecting, I was robbed by neighborhood hoodlums that took my collection money, scattered my papers in the wet gutter and beat me up. This was after all a business, the newspaper company delivered their product to me in good condition and while in my possession, they were destroyed. Bottom line… I still owed the newspaper company for the damaged papers and had to buy and deliver the replacement papers the customers were deserving of receiving before I could go home that night. 

When I got home, and explained to my dad what had happened, he was furious. To my surprise, he was furious with me.

Wait… I was a victim, why was he mad at me? Looking back; he was trying to teach me that life can deal you a bad hand. Rather than feel defeated and depressed, I should be learning from that bad experience and be developing a plan to keep it from happening again. The message was, a healthy attitude was the road to success. I on the other hand chose to play the part of the victim and did not rise to the challenges that occurred. Thus, I developed the attitude that money wasn’t worth the effort.

I recently told this story to a friend and mentor. I left out the part about my dad and expected a little sympathy. Instead my friend said… “I would have evaluated this differently” He told me that he viewed it as “I worked hard for my money and should have continued to porch the papers for the good paying customers.” When the other customers asked why they were no longer getting their papers on the porch and they had to retrieve them from the lawn or walkway, my response should have been “your neighbor, Mr. Smith shows his appreciation by having money ready when I arrive for collection, which is by the way the same time every month. If you would like to have yours placed on the porch again, please pay me on time”.

As for being robbed, my mentor friend said, “you worked hard to make that money, you should have worked at least that hard to keep it”. WOW… that’s what my dad said; I just didn’t get the message when he said it.

I told you this story because it opened my eyes to a lot of things. I now know where my unhealthy attitude toward money came from. I now know I could have done things differently, and now see that financially successful people think positive, and that when life deals you something bad, don’t allow it to defeat you, they are only bumps in the road and if you don’t like them, simply find ways go around them.

So… in my mind, financial health is an integral part of overall health. If you have no money worries, there is usually less stress in life… a huge contributor to declining physical health. Using the message in my story, never allowing yourself to be defeated applies to physical health as well. It is said that most minor health issues are psychosomatic, that when serious health issues do occur, people with the right mental attitude often overcome their affliction and often very quickly.

How about your spiritual health? I know that money, while it can’t cure all things, it can cure a lot of things, and that good people can do a lot of good things with money. For example, just knowing that you are able to contribute to the wellbeing of humanity, either through charitable donation, helping a friend, or having the freedom to give of your time and skills because you’re not having to spend the bulk of your day just making ends meet, can be spiritually uplifting and rewarding as well.

So, as you can see, having physical, spiritual and financial health all in balance with one another seems to be a good formula for a better quality of life. As we move through troubled times, let’s keep our eye on the ball… Stay healthy, and do it a naturally as possible. Become spiritually healthy, get involved in improving the lives of those of around you and allow yourself to feel good about the difference you make. Lastly, develop the best financial wellbeing possible and use it to better the lives of yourself and those around you. Moving forward… I say, Life is good, live it to its fullest.