Truth Bomb Tuesday: This could be one of society’s turning-points. We need to be careful about what we are modelling for future generations.
Be warned. Right now we are setting generations and generations up for poverty and struggle.
As you know, a lot of my work focuses on the mindset mentality of wealth and success. The mind creates the paths we walk – into wealth or relationships or personal fulfilment.
It all hinges on our beliefs and attitudes – our habits and our scripts.
And my coaches and I actually often talk about people having a ‘depression era’ mentality.
I mean, I saw this myself with my parents and grandparents.
They were children who lived through the hardships of World War I – the rations, the plagues, the men returning wounded and totally broken.
And then as young adults they saw the country go to pieces with the Great Depression – the unemployment lines, more rations.
And then in their family years – when they should have been enjoying the fullness of their own relaxed power – the world went to war again. Things became tight, again.
If you lived through those three events – Two World Wars and a Great Depression – it shaped who you were. In particular, it shaped the way you though about abundance and sufficiency.
I mean, my Grandmother hoarded thread and buttons and had a hard time throwing anything out.
My Grandfather would nibble away at a chicken drumstick until there was absolutely nothing left and it shone like polished metal.
I’m not trying to ridicule these habits. It was these habits that got them through incredibly hard times – struggles that I doubt many of us would be up to these days.
But the habits endured. For decades. The global economy boomed, Australia blossomed, but my Grandparents were never able to relax into the wealth that so many of us now take for granted.
They never trusted it. They thought it could be taken away in an instant. Austerity and hardship were only ever a day or two away.
But they were wrong, in the end. They passed away peacefully and the demons of poverty never did come back to get them.
Our experiences can force us into postures that become out-dated in time – that get overtaken by events.
I’m thinking of this now because the world is in turmoil. Perhaps the Corona crisis will be our Great Depression. It’s too early to tell, but it’s possible.
But how we respond to this, and how our children experience this, will shape our attitudes and beliefs for generations.
Our great great grandchildren are watching.
So I think we have a responsibility to revisit the disciplines of abundance.
And when I say that, I’m not talking about blinkered magical thinking and self-delusion.
I’m talking about making sure that you are awake to and honest about your experiences – that you are trusting your direct experiences and not buying into whatever fear and hysteria is out there.
And it’s about watching our habits – our instincts – and making sure they’re up-to-date and suited to the times.
And it’s about connecting to what’s important, and remembering that whatever happens in our material life, the opportunities for connection, love and meaning – the things that really matter – are infinite.
These are the disciplines of abundance.
And if you want to give your great great grandchildren a gift, give them this. Be the role model you were meant to be.
Resilient, pragmatic and full of faith.
Let’s give the future this ‘Corona era mentality’.
DB.