and do the exercise now. This book will do you no good if you skip the ex-
ercises, as you may have done in the past. Taking care of this now will set
you free. What are you waiting for?How Do You Sort Out Which Desires to Act On?
Human motivation comes from values, which are thoughts, atti-
tudes, and opinions that each of us feel strongly enough about to
put into action.
For example, if working hard is a value to you, something you
believe to be valuable for its own sake, this underlying value could
motivate you unwittingly to miss out on or ignore moneymaking op-
portunities that would empower you to work less and earn more.
Most people have less money than they want, and many people feel
guilty about wanting money. In other words, they condemn their
desire for money. Logic leads to the conclusion that accepting your
desire for money, instead of feeling guilty about it, can only in-
crease your wealth. If you don’t desire money, that is OK, too. (Al-
though if that is the case, we doubt you would be reading this
book.) Everyone we know who has been both rich and poor, and
thus has had the opportunity to compare the two, has a strong pref-
erence for rich.
Relying on your sense of morality to determine which desires
to act on may serve your well-being in some cases, but in other
cases, especially those related to money, it may not, simply be-
cause of the often-repeated childhood message that it is not OK
to want money.
It is virtually certain that you’ll be wealthier and happier, too, if
you rely on a consciously chosen purpose for your life to serve as
the guide for choosing which desires to act on.
Parents provide the basic values education. As children, we
formed the values our parents gave us into an unconscious pur-
pose. In most cases, the childhood purpose is based on gaining the
approval of the people around us on whom we are temporarily de-
pendent or on attempting to control them to provide the nurturing
we needed, or both. The important question to consider, as an
adult, is whether this purpose, adopted so long ago, under very dif-
ferent conditions, and perhaps unconsciously, is providing you with
the degree of satisfaction and self-expression you seek in your life
now. Are you satisfied with the state of your health and wealth, with92 Your Recovery from a Good Upbringing