Redefining Wealth

I am in Iowa this week and me and my friend Emily and her fun husband decided to meet up for lunch. 

So she drove two hours. I drove two hours.

Four total hours of driving for a conversation with someone I already talk to every week.

And it was completely worth it!

Emily and I used to work together years ago. Even though our careers and lives have taken us in different directions, we have stayed connected. In fact, for the last seven years, we have talked literally every Tuesday. If you know you know ;) 

Seven years.

There are very few things I have done consistently every Tuesday for seven years.

Yet somehow, our friendship has remained one of them.

Sitting together in Iowa, we started talking about life. Work. Family. Money. Dreams. Relationships! The things that have changed and the things that haven't.

At some point, we started talking about wealth.

And we both realized something.

We are both incredibly wealthy.

Not simply financially.

I am wealthy in friendship.

I have people in my life who will drive two hours to sit across from me.

I have people I can call when life is amazing and people I can call when life is messy.

I have friendships that have survived job changes, moves, kids, new seasons, busy schedules, successes, failures, and years of becoming different versions of ourselves.

That is wealth.

We tend to talk about wealth as though it belongs in one bucket.

Money.

How much do we make?
How much do we have?
How much have we saved?
What do we own?

Those things matter. Financial wealth gives us options, security, experiences, and the ability to help others. I am extremely thankful to have wealth in various areas of my life!

Remember, money is only one bucket.

What about our friendship wealth?

Our family wealth?

Our health wealth?

Our time wealth?

Our experience wealth?

Our love wealth?

Our community wealth?

Our purpose wealth?

Our spiritual wealth?

Our freedom wealth?

We can have this overflowing financial bucket while some of the others are completely empty.

We can also look at our bank account and convince ourselves we need more while failing to notice that we are millionaires (no, billionaires) in relationships, experiences, health, love, or time.

Maybe the goal isn't to become wealthy.

Maybe the goal is to become wealthy in more ways.

I want enough money to live the life I want to live and I am SO thankful I can because of the people who hire me and bring me to their events (THANK YOU). I have been doin this for 14 years and I am still in awe that I get to keynote and do this for my living! 

And I also want friends worth driving two hours to see.

I want people I can laugh with.

People I can cry with.

People who have known different versions of me and still want to know the person I am becoming.

I want meaningful work.

I want my healthy body.

I want adventures.

I want time with the people I love.

I want connection to something bigger than myself.

I want to contribute.

I want to be able to look around at my life and recognize how much I already have.

That day in Iowa, Emily and Boyd and I eventually got back into our cars and drove two hours in opposite directions.

Nothing about my bank account had changed.

But somehow, I felt richer.

Maybe that's the reminder.

There are many buckets in which we can be wealthy.

Don't spend so much time filling one that you forget to look at all the others.

And every once in a while, take the two-hour drive.

Some things are worth the miles.

That is my Tuesday Takeaway for the day ;)