“If poverty were a man, I would have slain him.” Ali ibn Abi Talib
Why do you do it? Why peel yourself from a bed that remains warm as long as you’re in it; why journey reluctantly to an 8-hour prison; why give 5 days in return for 2, and why trade youth for a meager stipend in retirement? Why settle for this treadmill if not for fear of what may come if you dare stop: the humiliation of poverty.
The fear of poverty is, without doubt, the most debilitating of the basic fears – personally, socially, globally. Ironically, poverty is not about money; it’s behaviors inherited and attitudes accepted as fate. It’s a fear that fertilizes paranoia, anesthetizes ambition and stifles the confidence to demand more of life…of self.
For most of this series – The 7 chakras of Fear – I’ve taken liberty to personalize concepts introduced in Napoleon Hill’s classic read, “Think and Grow Rich”. The book unravels a blueprint for financial liberation, but on the topic of wealth creation, and the fear of poverty that circumvents it, he is particularly vociferous.
In his words: “poverty takes the charm from one’s personality, destroys the ability to think accurately, diverts concentration of effort, turns willpower into nothingness, destroys ambition, beclouds the memory, and invites failure in the heart, discourages friendship and invites disaster in a hundred ways, leads to sleeplessness, misery, and unhappiness – and all this despite the obvious truth that we live in a world of over-abundance of everything the heart could desire, with nothing standing between us and our desires, except a lack of definite purpose.”
With great passion, and poignancy, he lays bare 7 hard truths about poverty: indifference, indecision, doubt, worry, over-caution, procrastination and settling for less. It’s a long, hard look into an unflattering reflection…
INDIFFERENCE: Commonly expressed through lack of ambition; willingness to tolerate poverty; acceptance of whatever compensation life may offer without protest; mental and physical laziness; lack of initiative, imagination, enthusiasm and self-control.
INDECISION: The habit of permitting others to do one’s thinking. Sitting on the fence.
DOUBT: Generally expressed through alibis and excuses designed to cover up, explain away, or apologize for one’s failures, sometimes expressed in the form of envy of those who are successful, or by criticizing them.
WORRY: Usually expressed by finding fault with others, a tendency to spend beyond one’s means, personal neglect, lack of poise, self-consciousness and lack of self-reliance.
OVER-CAUTION: The habit of looking for the negative side of every circumstance, thinking and talking of possible failure instead of concentrating upon the means of succeeding, knowing all the roads to disaster, but never searching for the plans to avoid failure. Waiting for “the right time” to begin putting ideas and plans into action, until the waiting becomes a permanent habit. Remembering anyone who has failed, and forgetting those who have triumphed.
PROCRASTINATION: The habit of putting off until tomorrow what should have been by now. Spending time in creating alibis and excuses to avoid doing the work. Refusing to accept responsibility when trouble is anticipated as a result of an action; willingness to compromise and avoid confrontation. Compromising with difficulties instead of harnessing and using adversity as a stepping-stone to advancement.
EXPECTING LESS: Bargaining with life for a penny, instead of demanding prosperity, opulence, riches, contentment and happiness. Association with people who accept poverty instead of seeking the company of those who demand and receive riches; planning what to do if and when overtaken by failure, instead of burning bridges and making retreat impossible. Weakness of – or – total lack of self-confidence, lack of purpose, self-control, initiative, enthusiasm, ambition and sound reasoning.
In a world of supreme abundance, poverty, and the fear it inspires, persists as the dominant state of mind. It is a condition so insidious it consumes our lifetime. I once met poverty, or so I thought. I was jobless, dire; living by the grace of bank overdrafts and pleading time from the landlord. But poverty had begun even before I ever took my first job as a small boy and only grew wilder and indifferent to earnings.
My personal poverty was subtle… normal…routine – as routine as leaving a warm bed 5 days from 7, as trading my today for a hopeful tomorrow – all the while oblivious that this fear had programmed my behavior, insured my compliance, and conditioned my acceptance of less. Poverty, I learned, is not a dollar value; it is ignorance, a liability of lack and a life-consuming diversion. Wealth won’t cure it or 95% of lottery winners wouldn’t be penniless today. More zeros guarantee more paranoia unless the fear of facing personal foibles can overthrow the more popular fear of poverty.
To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.” Samuel Johnson
That was a good discussion. I wonder if some people are afraid of wealth as well?
Deb