True Wealth

Tony Robbins teaches his readers all the basics of how to invest and how to be smart enough to overcome all the fears and mistakes that come with investing.

However, at the end of the day, his main lesson is that true wealth is never about money.

True wealth does not come from the trappings of success. Money and luxury are good efforts. There is nothing wrong with that. But to be successful in life, you need to find happiness and gratitude.

There are many stories about very rich and famous people who were so miserable that they broke up and committed suicide. Tony Robbins often sites the example of Robin Williams. A man who had it all, who was considered a national treasure. And for all that success, it didn’t materialize. He wasn’t really rich.

I’m not going to lie, it feels fake at the beginning. But it doesn’t hold for long. I’ve only been doing it for a few months and it has literally helped me power through my latest great challenge. (See more below.)

Long story short, true wealth comes from living life in a good emotional state.

We know what gets fulfilled

Thus, true wealth is about living happily. But what makes a person happy?

Tony’s answer was fulfillment. Being happy means we have found fulfillment. This means different things to everyone, but at the end of the day achieving fulfillment is the key to everyone achieving true success.

To achieve fulfillment we must do the following:

1) We need to keep growing.

This is how we become more and how we become self-satisfied. In short we need to feel progress. We need to feel like we are moving and growing in some way. Without this, we end up feeling directionless, empty and unfulfilled.

From experience, I am inclined to agree. I lived a free lifestyle. I didn’t have all the money in the world, but I was safe so I didn’t have to work and I could pretty much do whatever I wanted all day. I lived in my parents’ nice house, ate free meals, had a car and a stereo and beer money, and pretty much everything a young man could want to feel happy. And quite frankly it was boring. I spent days watching pointless TV, eating, drinking, slowly getting to the point of realizing it was all pointless.

I have no purpose and all that freedom, which would make me happy, and it never does.

Now I face busy work days, often doing things I’d rather not have to do. And then on my vacation I write, plan, read, learn and improve myself. In addition, all the responsibilities of being married, a father and handling bills. This is supposed to be the formula for stress, but it actually makes me feel powerful and feel happy. I had a purpose, a goal, and I was on my way to becoming the kind of man I wanted to be. That makes me feel empowered and proud.

This is the key to feeling rich.

Special Studies

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still looking for a way to free myself from having to work. And I know that with money and time I feel much more successful. The difference, however, is that now I have the intention to make that money and time work to help me achieve fulfillment. I had a vision of using money to better myself and my family and help others.

Before I wanted the freedom to be lazy. No matter how much money I had, I knew I would be throwing it away looking to fill a void that I now knew could only be filled with intention.

Now I have a purpose, I’m working harder than ever, I’m facing more responsibilities than ever, and I feel great.

2) You have to give.

To feel satisfied you have to contribute; you have to give something of yourself to others.

I just recently finished reading A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. This is probably a story we all know. If not, at least it’s a message we all know.

Scrooge, the main character, is super rich. He has the power of life or death over the people who work for him. Scrooge has so much wealth that he can do anything, even ignore family and people who annoy him with their silly sentimental ideas of love and charity. By most people’s definition, he achieved great success.

The Past

Then one night he was visited by apparitions that would show him his life. First he sees the past and how he had a love but gave it up to chase wealth. We can also assume that she gave up on love because she was afraid of being hurt. That fear leads him to become old, cold and empty.

The Present

Next, we see the apparitions of the present. We see the poor people around Scrooge, happily enjoying the little they have, and far from being jealous of Scrooge, they mock him and eventually feel sorry for him. For with all his mountains of wealth, he has nothing to do with it and no one to share life with. He was alone.

The Future

In the final apparition, we see that Scrooge is dead and we see that after his life of great ‘success’, no one will morn him anymore. No one cares about it. We also see that people he could have helped have suffered and we know what a waste that is. Scrooge sees that he can do a great deal for others and in doing so, he can do a great deal for himself.

In the end Scrooge changes and we see the sheer joy he has in saving the life of poor Tiny Tim, his clerk’s crippled son, and sharing his fortune and life with his doting and generous cousin.

He gives his wealth and time to others and in return, he gets happiness. Sing and dance like a happy fool. This is a true treasure. This is an obvious story, but I think we get that the message is one based on real life situations. What is the point of having mountains of wealth and all the free time in the world if you have nothing to enjoy.

More on Giving

There’s a lot to add here and I’ll expand on them in the future, as these are areas I need to focus on to get into the peak stake.

It boils down to the fact that happiness and wealth come from living healthily, living in gratitude, nourishing the mind with positivity and living in states of joy, passion and creativity.

For now, you know you can choose to feel rich right now. So choose to be happy. Be prepared for monsters that will try to take away your excitement and train your reactions. Take the power to choose wealth and happiness.

Final Thoughts on Real Wealth

So true wealth is about finding fulfillment and that comes from growing and contributing.

However, from reading Unshakeable I have found that another kind of true wealth is being unshakable; to live without fear and be fearless in times of danger and doubt. When you have this strength you can feel rich even in your hour of darkness.

I have to say, this lesson came at the perfect time for me.

Just recently I got my back out. A few years ago I herniated a disc in my lower back which caused compression of my sciatic nerve. This was very painful and took a long time to work through. Well, I turned it off again, and this time it felt even worse.

This time it really hit me. I was reduced to a disabled mess; struggling to get up and worrying if I was permanently disabled.

I’m not going to lie to you — I’m not completely unwavering. To be real honest, at first, I was anxious, I felt bad about myself and I was upset.

But even at the worst I felt my training kick in. Even as I lay there worrying about whether I’d get up and work again, I tried to think strong thoughts, ‘well if I can’t walk, then maybe I’ll be forced to be a good writer.’ Thankfully, things have changed. However, I was still anxious, and these lessons made me face the problem.

Ask the right questions:

The first lesson is to ask the right questions. The old me would have reacted with fear and asked ‘why did this happen to me?’. The new me tried not to be frightened and asked, ‘why did this happen to me ?’ As a result I learned some valuable lessons and now take better care of myself and don’t burn myself out, like I used to.

Learn about the game:

The old man would have freaked out and fainted, or tried to eat and drink my game. The new me knows that knowledge is power. I looked for what was wrong and dealt with it intelligently by finding role models and getting help. I got help and got help from others and used the knowledge to logically face the problem and deal with it.

Find What’s Right:

The old me would have been miserable and blamed everyone and everyone for my problems. The new me looked on the bright side and realized just how lucky I was.

I found gratitude in my wife who struggled to help me heal. Together we were thankful for our financial situation, which allowed me to get help, no matter the cost. I realized that many people do not have such a luxury.

All of this, combined with time to reflect during my injury, lead me to reevaluate my entire mission to win.

The Mission has changed

As I said earlier, I was starting to feel stressed as my entire mission for success was measured by financial outcomes and things I wanted. After this incident, I realized how to be rich today. My goal is still to achieve financial wealth, but right now it is to live healthy and live at the highest level. This is something I feel every day. And finally, my main goal is to live happily and I achieve that by being grateful every day for the good things I have.

It wasn’t immediate. Still a little shaky. But by studying Unshakeable , I was able to face this moment of real anxiety, pain and uncertainty, face it and then get back on my path to success.

The Last Message

Thanks again to Tony — seriously go out and read his books and listen to him. I have really only just scratched the surface here. His teachings completely changed my life for the better.

Ultimately, I truly believe these insights are helping me become a bigger person and helping me find true wealth for me and my family.

I hope they are helping you too. I believe life is better when we wake up looking for a successful day and dreaming of having a successful life.

So thanks again, and always remember to keep striving for success.