Pay Yourself Back: Kindness To Get Rich 🤑

Last week, I gave you four actionable steps to get rich, quickly.

No gimmicks. The truth is that the kind and the good win, always.

Not only do they win, but they are often wealthy — not billionaire, filthy-rich-off-of-slave-labor rich, but rich in spirit, connection and wellness.

In the modern days of rampant consumerism and late-stage capitalism, we’ve been convinced that wealth can only be through a sum of dollars, and that dollars can only be acquired through an exchange of labor.

I can’t tell you how many people come to me with a desire to “make money” or “get rich.”

“What would you do with all that money?” I ask them. “What if I gave you a suitcase with a million dollars, right now. What would be your next steps?”

Usually, there’s a long silence. After a while, there might be a reply along the lines of “I’d buy properties, or start a business.”

Basically, they’d use that money to …. get more money.

That might sound totally reasonable to you. Make more money.

That’s the core tenet we’ve been conditioned to believe as Americans. But isn’t there something you’re supposed to do with money? Isn’t it a tool to achieve something … else?

If “having money” is the final goal, what number do you stop at? When will you be satisfied with what you already have?

The capitalist system wants us to have no goals in mind outside of profit-generation.

It wants us, the puny worker ants, to forget about our loved ones and adopt self-oriented, consumer-driven lives.

It wants us to live with roommates into our thirties, never graduating into true adulthood, like the characters in Friends.

It wants us to forego any pursuits of virtue, and discourages having children or families, instead promoting only hard work and passive consumption.

The system wants you to believe that only your labor can create happiness.

I’m here to tell you that this notion couldn’t be further from the truth.

Now, here’s the really fun part.

To prove that kindness can get you more wealthy than any employer can, I’ll share four more challenges with you.

To become fully happy and wealthy, you’ll first have to learn to be kind to yourself.

Four clear acts of self-kindness to get rich 🤑

• Get better sleep. If health is wealth, good sleep is a gold mine.
  
  For most people, better sleep means going to sleep earlier, waking up earlier, cutting out the lights earlier, turning off screens and digital stimulation earlier, and enjoying dinner earlier in the evening. Noticing a pattern?
  
  Praying, meditating, stretching or relaxing in any way before sleep makes big improvements.
  
  For me, leveling the air conditioner to high and making my room a cold cavern has been a game changer. 

• Identify a goal. This could be a commitment to intermittent fasting for three weeks, or a commitment to investing a percentage of your paycheck in stocks.
  
  Whether it is big or small, pick a goal that you believe will make you happy or wealthy. Remember, you’re playing the long game here.
  
  The sacrifice you’re making for your future self is the act of kindness.

• Eat something both sweet/rewarding AND healthy. This is easier than you think.
  
  Eat a fruit medley, lick a spoonful of honey, place peanut butter on a banana, drizzle watermelon with lemon juice, and you’ll be on the right track.
  
  Doritos and Little Debbies cream pies don’t count. Your body knows when it likes something that is healthy.
  
  It also feels guilt when it is loving what is low-key self-destructive. 

• Close your eyes and smile while thinking about positive and heartfelt.
  
   Your body and mind craves peace, even if it is mentally constructed.
  
  This is another real simple one that can last for 30 seconds or 30 minutes, depending on how good you’d like to feel.
  
  For me, memories involving friends, family or pets is a lovable way to get to a mental place of peace.
  
  I like to imagine the beach, a beautiful hike, or a pool of cold water to relax in as well. 

•  Sing yourself a song that makes you happy. 
  Sing it, yes, but sing it TO yourself. Extra points if it’s in the mirror.

• On the sunniest day, spend 10 minutes just sitting in the sun, doing whatever activity you like.
  
  Could be breathing, listening, or that singing activity I just told you about.
  
  Come to think of it, you could do all of these self-kindness activities while laying in the sun.
  
  That would be an embarrassment of kindness riches, though. 

This is just week two of many in your life of kindness.

Notice I said this is a lifelong effort — the purpose of your life is to be good to all living things, and to operate with grace and mercy for the sake of goodness itself.

Everything else is a bonus.

Now, put your best foot forward, slap a big old grin on your face, and set the world on fire with your heart of gold. Love thyself …