Celebrate Your Wealth and Success

by Bonnie Boots

Recently I had the good fortune to attend a local meeting of people who work on the internet. This came about when someone on an internet marketing forum asked "Is there anyone else here living in Florida?" It turned out there were quite a few, many of us within easy driving distance of each other. And what a delight it was to meet each other in the real world!

This was the first time I've been able to connect with internet people in my own community. No one had to make plane or hotel reservations, or pack luggage or spend very much to travel. All we had to do was gather together at a local coffee shop-with WiFi of course!-and get to know each other.

I learned so much about each person there, even some I'd known online for some time, and was reminded that all the social networks and forums in the world can't deliver as much information or build relationships as well as one real-world handshake.

Not only did it give me a deeper sense of connection to people I usually only see online, it also gave me a deeper sense of being "at home" in my own community.

I'm used to being surrounded, in real time, by people that don't have any idea what I do to make a living. My foreign language, filled with "PPC" and "OTO" and "ISP," requires constant translations, which makes conversation awkward at best.

At worst, people simply roll there eyes back and shake their heads---"There she goes again. What the heck is she talking about?"

But there was none of that at the coffee shop meeting. Everyone there understood me as easily as I understood them. And suddenly I feel more at home in my own neighborhood, because now I know for a fact that there are other people here like me!

As I listened to the easy chatter among newfound friends, something else became very clear to me-American's have a terribly warped idea of what wealth and prosperity are.


As people around the table introduced themselves and described what they do on the internet, I heard voice after voice saying things like "I'm making some money-but I'm not a millionaire," or "I'm doing O.K. but I'm sure not wealthy."

One said "I've made a little money in affiliate sales, but I'm sure not a success like the rest of you."

I was shocked and saddened to hear that these folks, who have the good luck to live in an extremely wealthy country and the better luck to be making money-any kind of money-on the internet, all felt they weren't doing well enough.

In fact, simply by virtue of living in the United States, these folks are doing better than a large portion of the world's population. By some figures, 75% of the people in the world do not have a refrigerator. If you can look out in the kitchen and see one, consider yourself wealthy.

The Hunger Site says 24,000 people a day, day after day, die of starvation. If there's food in that refrigerator, consider yourself wealthy. If the bathroom scale says you have too much food in that refrigerator, consider yourself extremely wealthy.

The Center For American Progress says 37 million Americans-12.6 percent of the population-live below the official poverty line. They struggle just to stay alive. If you have a decent place to live, and the luxury to spend time fiddling around on the internet, consider yourself quite wealthy.

Yet a group of affluent, healthy and well-fed people consider themselves "not wealthy" and "not a success." How is it possible these folks have such a warped view of wealth and success?

I blame it on the thing I love the most---the internet.

Every day my email box fills up with sales letters claiming the sender jumped on the internet and became a millionaire-almost overnight. Read that twenty, thirty or forty times a day and it's easy to start thinking of yourself as an underachiever-no matter how well you're doing.

Every day I'm in internet marketing forums where people claim they have mailing lists of 200,000 or more and are making money hand over fist working just 4 hours a day.
Read that twenty, thirty or forty times a day and it's easy to start thinking of yourself as "not very successful."

Of course, some people have made millions using the internet as a marketing avenue

And some people do work 4 hours a day.

But the vast majority have not and do not.

By the same token, some people have made millions investing in real estate or trading stocks or being top fashion models, but the vast majority have not, do not.

There's a danger in believing that everyone but you is making millions, that everyone but you is fabulously thin and rich and partying with Paris Hilton. The danger is that you will fail to appreciate how truly blessed you are, how truly wealthy you are and how truly successful you are.

The danger is that you will begin to think of yourself as "not wealthy," as "not successful."

Why is that dangerous? Because the brain takes its orders from the messages we repeat to it each day. If you repeat, over and over, thoughts of not being wealthy, not being successful, your brain will make sure you don't feel wealthy and successful---even though you are.

You will begin to act in accordance with those feelings. And before you know it--guess what?

You really won't be very wealthy or successful!

So take a minute to look around right now. Look at your loved ones, look at your home, look at your vehicle, look at your computer, look at your software, look at all the stuff you own--and appreciate how truly wealthy and successful you are to have all this. See it. Believe it. Speak it!
 

 
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