How to Avoid Greed
One question that came up from recent posts ( “Can a Rich Person be Spiritual?” and “Imagine if you won $200 million” ) is “How do you avoid greed?”
First, per the Webster’s dictionary, greed is defined as “an overwhelming desire to acquire or have, as wealth or power, in excess of what one requires or deserves”. This is difficult to quantify because what does a person require or deserve? If we look back at life 200 years ago, most of us have more than what was deemed needed to live on 200 years ago (including having a refrigerator). If we look at who we are (children of our creator whether it is God, Allah, Buddha, etc.), then don’t we all deserve the best?
In my opinion, defining greed should focus on the first part of the definition “an overwhelming desire to acquire or have, as wealth or power …” Desire is usually created from feeling lack. This can apply to several situations, including
• Lack of self-worth – need to compare oneself with others by having the same things (or more than) in order to feel good about oneself (e.g., keeping up with the Joneses)
• Lack of self-love – need to buy things when a person is sad or depressed due to feeling unloved
• Lack of money – believing there is a limited amount of money in the world thus feeling the need to fight for their share (and keep it when they have it)
“How do you avoid greed”? This is a statement is usually about how can I have money without being greedy, thus coming from a place of not having money. Many people look at money as the cause of greed. Many try not to be like those “greedy rich people” by avoiding money. Yet, greed is not about the money. Greed is about the reason why a person wants money. Trying to overcome greed by avoiding money does not solve the problem because greed is only a symptom of the problem and not the real issue. By avoiding money, you are actually just intensifying the feeling of lack which is the cause of greed. You may believe that “I will lack spirituality or kindness if I have money” (and thus become greedy). Or, to be spiritual and kind, “I need to lack money”. The key is to drop your beliefs that money created the greedy people, the same greedy people who you are vilifying.
In either case, if you are avoiding money in order not to be greedy or if you may be greedy, you can transform your situation by changing the feeling of lack into abundance. Yet, you may ask, isn’t greed about abundance (having too much)? No, greed is about feeling of lack. If a person believes in abundance then he would not feel the need to acquire excess wealth or power, rather he will share it freely. This is the distinction that I was making in “Can a Rich Person be Spiritual?” A rich man feels the need to acquire money to define who he is. A spiritual man will let wealth pass through him without the need to acquire it because he does what he loves and the money follows.
The first step in transforming lack into abundance is to identify all areas of lack (or fear of lack) in your life or an area that you fear having lack. Look at any areas where you believe if you have a little bit more, you will be happier. For some, this may be money. For others, it may be love (self-love), respect, self-worth, kindness, caring, etc.
The next step is to believe that you already have an abundant supply of what you lack. A good way to do this is to tithe and practice gratitude. Taking the opposite action (being thankful and giving it away) is what changes belief in lack. To practice gratitude, make a list of things you are grateful for around the area of lack. To practice tithing, give what you believe you lack because the action of tithing symbolizes that you already have enough. By being grateful for what you have and freely giving it away (tithing) will show you that you have enough versus having a lack. If you believe you are lacking money, be grateful for the money you have and give it away freely. If you believe the world lacks kindness, then give more kindness and see the kindness that is already all around you. This is because what we focus on (with gratitude and tithing) will expand.
Money can freely flow your way. There is nothing wrong with having money. The problem is when we define ourselves by what we have or do not have.
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July 4th, 2006 at 9:30 am
Very good post - one that I will re-read at least several times, and think about often.
But where is the line between having enough for oneself and giving away the extra? And how do you know how much you’ll (really) need?
For example, a longtime friend of my mother in law recently went into the hospital. He’s in his late 60s, and the prognosis is very bad. Throughout his life, this man had given virtually everything away. My MIL says that he was “always bad with money”. Over the years, he had given his daughter an extremely lavish wedding far beyond his budget; then supported that daughter and her three kids after her divorce (all lived with him and his wife in their small house); borrowed money from loan sharks to give to friends in need, etc. His wife now says that when her husband passes, she’ll be forced to sell their small house. She doesn’t know how she’ll make ends meet. Her husband had worked all his life in an executive level position and my MIL says you couldn’t meet a nicer, kinder person.
I know of other similar stories, including several friends who consistently overspent (on themselves as well as others) and are now scrambling to find work when others their age are retired.
My own belief is that one must have balance in one’s financial life - a healthy respect for money, without too much overindulgence in greed & miserliness. But where does one draw the line?
July 10th, 2006 at 11:12 am
Carnival Of Personal Growth…
Welcome to the July 10, 2006 edition of personal growth carnival. This is the first of Many Personal Growth Carnivals. What’s a Carnival you ask? It’s a collection of what’s hot from around the web in Personal Growth.&l ……
July 12th, 2006 at 2:44 am
[…] Continuing along the Business thread, Victor Fam at Towards Better Life presents Guide Towards Better Life. This blog he list as being about “Financial Independence, Personal Growth, Motivation, Career, Goals, Wealth, Health, Success…”. These are all good things. Before you can get these things, assuming you were not born with the ol’ silver spoon in your mouth, you will eventually need a job. Hell, I miss mine! Well, FMF at Free Money Finance has some great tips on How to Answer Tricky Interview Questions. You’re going to need these. Pay attention! Right on his heels, though, comes Pete with How to Avoid Greed? posted at My Financial Awareness. Yeah, so it isn’t exactly a business post. It seemed to fit perfectly in that spot though. One must keep a level head. […]
July 12th, 2006 at 10:08 am
[…] Carnival of Vanities with “How to Avoid Greed” […]
July 14th, 2006 at 3:03 am
Thank you for creating this article. I enjoyed this article more than I have any other article in a long time, possibly ever.
September 30th, 2006 at 9:39 am
[…] However, what creates the desire is the key. When you have a desire to escape where you are (e.g., desire to become a millionaire in order to escape debt or poverty) or to have more money because you do not feel secure with what you have, then desire can be detrimental. So, should a poor person give up the desire to be rich? No. However, if a poor person is trying to escape where he is at instead of being at peace with where he is, then the desire can be detrimental. This is because trying to escape from where we are can be an addiction. Many addictions are centered on a person having a false belief of himself. If you are trying to escape who you are because you define yourself by money, this can lead to greed which is an addiction (needing more and more money to feel good). Yet, you are not your money. If you define yourself by how little or much you have, it is a never ending cycle. This is because if you do not reach your goal, you are going to strengthen the belief that you are not a worthwhile person until you have money. And, if things could not get worse, even if you do reach your goal it will not be good enough. If your belief is that you are not a worthy person because you are broke then having more money is not going to change this because you will find that you need a little bit more to be good enough. It is an endless trap because our net worth does not define our self-worth. Thus, the desire creates a trap to keep our sense of self-worth low. Even having a desire to escape poverty to have a better life for your children is a trap because it is based on “I am a good (or better) parent if I give my child things that I did not have growing up”. […]
October 24th, 2006 at 10:02 am
[…] Pete presents How to Avoid Greed? posted at My Financial Awareness, saying, “Greed is not about money, yet the desire to overcome a sense of lack. Learn the secret to overcome greed.” […]