Part 6 of 12
A Practical Guide to Prosperous Living
J Douglas Bottorff
When you pick up a prosperity-based book such as this one, you undoubtedly do so with this basic question in mind: How do I become prosperous? A significantly more important question, however, is this: Who is this I whom I am trying to prosper?
Are you trying to prosper the true, spiritual being which you are, or are you trying to prosper the limited self-image which you think you need to be? Reaching a clear understanding of your motivation to prosper may be one of the most significant breakthroughs you make when it comes to living a truly prosperous life. Why? Because when you know what it is you are actually trying to achieve, your efforts will be focused and you will achieve it.
It has been my observation that, in our quest for a more prosperous life, many of us are motivated by the need to compensate for feelings of personal lack and inadequacy, feelings which, as I discovered in my short-lived high school football career, can only be eradicated by drawing from the well of our own spiritual resources. I know that in those early high school years I felt incomplete as a person. In my quest for prosperity, I was really looking for things that would make me feel better about myself and allow me to fit in. My motive to prosper was negative; I was compensating for perceived short-comings. When this is the case, no external acquisition is satisfying, because nothing external has the ability to compensate for that which you feel you lack as a person.
The thinking that stems from this belief that external things and accomplishments can compensate for feelings of personal inadequacy is what I call conclusionistic thinking. The logic of the conclusionistic thinker, or conclusionist goes like this: My quest for happiness, peace of mind, freedom, satisfaction or love will conclude when I make my first million, when I become president of the board, when I get that raise, when I get that promotion, when I achieve that certain status, or when I finally find the relationship of my dreams. This is similar to the destination thinker that I mentioned in the previous chapter. Of course, there is nothing wrong with acquiring or achieving any of these things. It’s the why behind your quest for them that determines how satisfying they are. If your motivation to prosper is fueled by a sense of personal inadequacy, you’ll never rise above the creative survival mode and you will not be satisfied for long with any of the things you accomplish.