We live in a time when abundance has become an ideology. Scour the self-help sections on Amazon or across the web and you’ll discover many books and resources that talk about an “abundance mindset”, an idea from Steven Covey which he introduces in his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” Some of the ideas can be very helpful, but the overall theme is that we can live effective, fulfilling lives by changing our mindset. After all, isn’t this what most people desire- a fulfilling life that is abundant in relationships and connections, significance and impact, success, prosperity and finances?
In your search, you might also come across the writings of Rhonda Byrne, the author of the wildly popular book “The Secret,” with it’s ideas rooted in the Law of Attraction work of Helena Blavatsky and Norman Peale. Again, these ideas orbit around the promise of achieving a life of abundance. In this instance, this abundance can be manifest through the focusing of thoughts and the energy they contain since, it is claimed, similar energy attracts each other. The assertion is then that this secret allows a person to improve their health, wealth, and personal relationships… so that one can enjoy a life of abundance.
Pursuit of happiness
If you’ve spent any time on social media you will find promises of abundance being sold. And you will find people following, liking, subscribing and even worshiping the lives of the “successful”, trying to glean any information from these celebrities, or the shortcuts that have come to be known as “life hacks” that will allow us to become more effective, productive, attractive and wealthier like the people we are imitating. Of course, there is nothing wrong with wanting to improve ourselves. This is a noble endeavor. And there is nothing wrong with learning from those who have met with success. A wise man will save much time and pain if he learns lessons from those who have already learned them the hard way. But, our human desire to live lives of abundance through significance, wealth, relationships and influence are pervasive and persistent. And because of that, they have been monetized. This search for abundant life drives a multi-billion dollar industry. The self-help and self-improvement niche is testimony to this but also of our deepest and most profound longings as human beings- our quest for significance, our preoccupation with influence, our drive to make an impact, our desperation to be appreciated and loved, our pursuit for success, and our clamoring for the freedom that we’ve been told wealth will give us.
In fact, we have even made laws of this idea of abundant living. The pursuit of happiness described in the US constitution is considered a human right because it is part of what makes us who we are. We all have this idea of happiness or abundant living that we all are pursuing because it is in our nature.
The hollowness of “happiness”
So the idea of abundant living is a popular one. It’s all around us. And it seems like pursuit of this abundant living is a part of us. So how do these books, programs, ideologies and even laws, deliver on their promises? Do they offer truly abundant living?
The idea of abundant living is often that of accumulation of friends, possessions, influence and material success. But is abundant living really a measure of our physical & social accumulation? Of wealth… of stuff…. of influence and social connectedness?
Talk to anyone that has accumulated such things, whether they have inherited fortunes or built empires themselves, and you will discover lurking under the surface, a feeling of discontent, perhaps disappointment. The gold they were chasing at the end of the rainbow, that abundant life, has really evaded them. The thing they pursued and which they initially thought they had captured cannot be found, not felt, not experienced. True abundant living.
There is this notion that we as humans have. It’s in-built. It’s been codified even, just like it has in the US constitution, that we all have the right to something… better. The idea is that there is a life worth living. That we should all have the right to pursue “happiness.” It’s our human right because there’s this idea that there is an abundant life that can be pursued. But how do we pursue that abundance? But the reality is, people are often looking in the wrong place.
Right ladder, wrong wall
Imagine that you climb a ladder. And after climbing a good way up the ladder, you realise it’s leaning against the wrong wall. It can be like that in our lives… we can spend a lot of time, effort and resources on climbing a ladder, to get ahead, to move up, to get where we think we should be, to experience abundance and happiness, contentment and fulfilment. But, then at some point in our ascent, if we pause and take stock of where we are, we may realise that we are actually not headed towards those things which we have been pursuing. There is no real evidence of those things in our life, at least not with any lasting impact. And so we had kept climbing. But, we are not experiencing things, not achieving those goals, that fulfilment, that satisfaction, that “abundance” we have been seeking. Because what we thought we wanted is not want we really, deep inside need or actually long for. Our ladder is propped up against the wrong wall.
What is the right wall to lean on?
So, what is the correct wall to lean our ladders on? What wall will provide the experience of abundant life that our human souls, the deepest parts of who we are, long so much after?
In the next section we shall see that although there are many promises out there claiming to meet our deepest longings and offering abundant life, these claims are typically empty. While we may find ourselves in a world full of great wonder and beauty. While we may enjoy our lives and meet with success in relationships, career, wealth, significance and impact, there is still something missing. It is strange, but if we are honest, we all have hankerings, longings and desires that are left unmet by even the most effective self-help guru or the most loving of families, or the freedom of wealth, or the significance of any influence we’ve earned.
And while there is a