Money magnifies; it doesn't reverse.
A miserable person who becomes even richer will just be more miserable.
Suicide rates skyrocket in people who win the lottery.
If you double the income of someone in debt, most likely they will just quickly end up twice as much in debt.
That's why even most people who make over $100,000 per year claim to still be living "paycheck to paycheck" and claim to be struggling to pay their bills. They have twice as many problems as they did at half as much income. They have twice as many unpaid bills that are twice as big. Their credit cards debt is twice as high with twice as much new interest accruing each month. The miserable hole they dug for themself is twice as deep and growing twice as fast. They likely spend at least twice as much on impoverishing short-sighted luxuries like alcohol, cigarettes, and jewelry. They are twice as addicted to their addictions. Twice as stuck. Twice as imprisoned. Twice as spiritually enslaved.
Most importantly, they are twice as miserable (i.e. twice as ungrateful and resentful).
Giving an ungrateful person more just makes them even more ungrateful (i.e. miserable).
That goes for others as well as yourself. If you are in a romantic relationship with a miserable ungrateful person who takes you for granted, being even nicer to them and giving them even more generosity will almost certainly make them more even more miserable and ungrateful.
If you have a beloved child addicted to drugs, the worst thing you can do for them is enable them (i.e. 'help' them) in any way. Like chocolate to a pet, what is a nice extra treat for some is poison to most. Your help is one of the most dangerous things you have to offer.
What is a blessing to a grateful person who has free-spirited inner peace and mature self-responsibility is a curse to an ungrateful comfort addict lacking the true happiness that is invincible inner peace and spiritual freedom (a.k.a. self-discipline.
If you aren't (or wouldn't be) happy poor, then you will be even more miserable rich.
If you aren't financially responsible and grateful poor, then you will be even more irresponsible and ungrateful (i.e. miserable) when rich.
More money doesn't fix pre-exisiting problems; it magnifies them.
It doesn't create new virtues (e.g. gratefulness and invincible inner peace); it magnifies pre-exisiting ones, if and only if they are there, uncorrupted by addiction, greed, clinginess, or irresponsibility.
If you are (or would be) happy and grateful even when poor and homeless, then you will be even happier and more exploding with infinite gratitude when richer.
You'll never be happy, truly happy, so long as you think money can make you happy. But once you realize money can't make you happy, and thereby realize what truly can (e.g. gratitude, spiritual freedom, and self-responsibility), then you will always be happy, with or without money. More money, more power, more resources, more time, and a longer life will merely magnify that pre-existing invincible gracious happiness, that pre-existing infinite invincible gratitude and happy self-responsibility.
With love,
Eckhart Aurelius Hughes
Eckhart Aurelius Hughes is the author of In It Together: The Beautiful Struggle Uniting Us All. He also runs a free mentoring program that guarantees success.. Success at your chosen goal is guaranteed, whether it is a financial goal, fitness goal, or any other ambitious but at least theoretically possible goal. If your goal is to become a millionaire, it will happen if you follow his system, guaranteed. If you weigh 350 lbs and your goal is to lose 200 lbs and get 6-pack abs, it will happen if you follow his system, guaranteed.
"The mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master."
I believe spiritual freedom (a.k.a. self-discipline) manifests as bravery, confidence, grace, honesty, love, and inner peace.
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