Episode 1190: Is Money the Measure of Success?

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,190 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:07] Lyn Barrett: I'm Lynn Barrett. I challenge you to invest yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to live an integrated life is the key.

[00:00:28] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Mader.

[00:00:38] Scott Maderer: So often what happens is if you have this single measure of success, that money equals success, then you end up not really valuing all of the other things that we can do. You end up holding on to your resources and your assets with closed fists. You begin to go beyond [00:01:00] just looking at a need and all of a sudden wants become need.

[00:01:05] Welcome, and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true. In the inspired stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:31] In today's episode about developing your influence through stewarding your treasures. I talk with you about why money is often used as a measure of success. I share why you need to think more about what success really means to you. And I also share why defining success in this way, often leads to hoarding rather than.

[00:01:51] as we talk about stewarding your treasures, wouldn't it be great. If you could support this podcast and do it without costing yourself, [00:02:00] an extra dime turns out you can't. All you have to do is use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. When you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon and a small commission will come back to support the show.

[00:02:14] If you enjoy the show, when you're ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/. I think a lot of times we confuse money with success. We think of money as the measure of success. And yet I bet if I challenge you. And I said, think of some of the most successful people think of the people who are heroes in your life, who people who you admire, people who you hold up and know and think of as successful.

[00:02:46] Are they, the people that always had the highest net worth or the highest income and odds are good, that's not necessarily true. It turns out that what we often think of is success is really as much [00:03:00] about qualities as this is about quantity. And it's about more than just the qualities that are related to money and financial matters.

[00:03:11] Instead, you can brainstorm a list of values that you measure as success here. Here's some of mine I, I value giving back in some way. I value contributing to society and finding ways to give both financially, but also with time. With knowledge with skills. I value being a good father and being a good husband.

[00:03:36] I value being a good godfather to my God, daughters being a good friend, being somebody that others can depend on. I value volunteering. I value the work I do with the church, both in terms of education of other lay servants and other folks. And the volunteering I do at my local church. [00:04:00] I value hard work and persistence.

[00:04:03] I value health. I value ongoing learning and education. I value knowledge and I value skills and I value people that have those things as well. it turns out that you need to think some about what is it that success really means to you and make your own list. You need to brainstorm what are things that you value?

[00:04:33] And I bet they're both connected to money directly and indirectly. And then there's others that maybe aren't connected to money. Directly or indirectly see indirectly sometimes what it is money. Doesn't give you those things, but money may give you the ability to exhibit them. Maybe by having some money, you can actually now take the time to volunteer or to do something else.

[00:04:59] Or you [00:05:00] can give more because you've done things. I think a lot of times we equate money with self worth and worth. We look at someone and we say they earn more. So somehow they're worth more to society. It's a very Western thing. But the truth is after earning, saving and investing enough to meet your needs, after that, it turns out.

[00:05:27] You can earn more. You can invest more, you can do more. It doesn't really change your happiness that much. Yesterday. I talked about how there's this tendency of our brain, no matter what happens to go back to the default state. This is part of that, whatever you start earning beyond a certain level, it doesn't really change your internal state that much, because it doesn't really change the external state in a way.

[00:05:56] That last that's one thing. If you're going from making [00:06:00] $13,000 a year to making $40,000 a year, or even if you're going from making 30 to making 60. But going from 60 to making 120 doesn't have as big of an impact on our emotions, on our values and on our ability to do more, to think more, to value more because at the end of the day, the amount of money you have, and the amount of time you have are both finite and our time is even more.

[00:06:29] Than our money. And the truth is you can't use money to always get more time, at least not directly. So often what happens is if you have this single measure of success, that money equals success, then you end up not really valuing all of the other things that we can. You end up holding on to your resources and your assets with closed fist, you begin to go beyond just [00:07:00] looking at a need and all of a sudden wants become needs because you're constantly chasing that next high.

[00:07:07] You become somebody who instead of money being currency and traveling through you. You want to hold onto it. You. Stagnant in a way the money flows in, but nothing flows out. You stop looking for opportunities for growth, you stop looking for opportunities to change. You, stop looking for opportunities to do more and be more and exhibit your values even more.

[00:07:34] And because of that, you end up stagnating. Instead of growing the old expression is if you're not growing, you're dying. And I think there's some truth to that. And that's what happens if all of your definition of success is tied up directly with how much you earn, how much you save, how much you make.

[00:07:54] It's not that those things aren't important, but they can't be the measure of [00:08:00] success alone. If you really want to grow. Thanks for listening.

[00:08:07] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast, as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you like this episode on the stewardship of treasures, you can sign up for our treasures tips by going to.

[00:08:33] Inspired stewardship.com/treasures or text in the us 4 4, 2, 2, 2 treasures tips. And we'll send you five weeks of our best tips on stewarding your treasures until next time invest your. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.[00:09:00]