Redefine Wealth for Yourself summary

Cultivating strong relationships positively impacts your home life, personal development, and professional opportunities. Start with your family and inner circle, then work outward, examining what you’re bringing to each relationship and who you’ve chosen to surround you. If you find shortcomings, you have the power to correct them. Let’s look at a few ways you can do this.

First, give people the gift of really listening to them. In a 2018 survey by Capital One, more than half of the participants said they didn’t believe the people in their daily lives actively listened when they speak. Be the exception by showing you’re truly attentive and engaged when others speak, and don’t try to fake it. Washington retells how her child called her out for not listening when she responded positively while listening to a negative story. Unlike the author’s daughter, many people won’t say a thing when they notice. But they do notice.

Okay, let’s now move on to space, the third pillar.

As you strengthen the network of people around you, you need to consider the rest of your surroundings. The path to success requires creating organized and pleasant spaces, including your office, home, and calendar. The state of your surroundings not only reflects the order – or chaos – of your life but also the standards you think you deserve.

As you pursue an abundant life, you need to stay the course to pursue your purpose, make your values clear, and stay focused on your goals amid inevitable setbacks. Faith, the fourth pillar of wealth, is essential to accomplishing these things.

Throughout her career, Washington has made it clear that her faith is Christianity. At the same time, she emphasizes that faith in this context isn’t limited to a specific religion but the act of believing in a higher power to guide your purpose, strengthen your resolve, clarify your values, and determine how you present yourself to the world.

Do you love everything about the work you do? If so, skip forward to the last section.

If you’re still here, stick around to find out how you can make that answer a yes. 

There’s no mistake that money comes last in the six pillars. As we’ve discovered in examining the five pillars of wealth in the previous sections – fitness, people, space, faith, and work – not only does money matter less when any of them are off-balance but ensuring that balance is also essential to attracting and enjoying material wealth.

When you’ve found that balance – and you can work on improving your material wealth – you should begin with developing a wise money mindset. This means making the decision that even in times of adversity, you’ll persevere. It requires you to rework your own beliefs about money to reflect a life of possibility and reject any limiting beliefs that may have been imposed on you early in life. And, you should also commit time and energy to practices that reinforce this mindset, such as affirmations and faith in positive outcomes.