Prosperity and Poverty: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Wallace Wattles writes, ‘There is a science of getting rich, and it is an exact science like algebra or arithmetic. There are certain laws which govern the process of acquiring riches; once these laws are learned and obeyed by any person that person will get rich with mathematical exactitude.’ A law of prosperity is simply a guideline, principle, standard or tenet to direct one’s behaviour towards achieving one’s prosperity. Prosperity has laws but poverty has none. In poverty, everything goes. Prosperity is the product of a Positive Mental Attitude while poverty is the product of a Negative Mental Attitude. The relationship between prosperity and poverty is that while prosperity is what truth is; poverty is what falsehood is or absence, opposite, reverse and shadow of prosperity. Indeed, prosperity and poverty are two sides of the same coin. For example, take any coin of money; name the top side ‘Prosperity’ and then name the bottom side of the same coin ‘Poverty’.

To travel to prosperity all that you need to do is to just turn your money coin to the side of ‘Prosperity,’ follow the laws of prosperity and live according to them. Ultimately, you will become prosperous. It is actually that simple! As prosperity is something, it is a product of your Positive Mental Attitude and as poverty is nothingness, it is a product of your Negative Mental Attitude! You can ONLY achieve prosperity with a Positive Mental Attitude. Your journey from Poverty to Prosperity is called ‘A positive mind-set change.’

The bridges on which you will travel from Poverty to Prosperity include Positive Thinking, Integrity/Honesty, Commitment or Innovation.

The basis of positive thinking is the mind principle: All causation is mental. It means that thought is the primary cause of everything while everything else is only effect or result of thought. Therefore, if you choose to change any effect or result in your life you must first change its cause. When you change the cause of anything that thing ceases to exist.

If you continue to think the way you have always been thinking you will always end up where you have always ended up. For example, as Charles Fillmore observes, ‘Do not think and say that money is scarce because the same thought will scare money away from you; do not think and say the times are hard because the same thought will harden your pocket; and do not think and say that you lack something because the same thought will create conditions of lack for you.’ When a person thinks habitually about lack, scarcity, poverty or death that person is opening the pathways to these negative circumstances, conditions and states.

The first bridge is Positive Thinking.

On the other hand, when a person thinks habitually about abundance, affluence, prosperity or good life that person is also opening the pathways to these positive circumstances and conditions. You must think openly and optimistically to attract abundance, affluence, prosperity and good life to you. Proverbs 4:23 and 23:7 remind us, ‘Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts.’ ‘As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.’ Think to promote personal prosperity instead of thinking to manage personal poverty. Think to promote personal resilience instead of thinking to manage personal vulnerability. Think to promote self-empowerment instead of thinking to manage self-destitution. You are who you think about most of the time and to experience an advanced standard of living you must first experience an advanced standard of thinking.

The second bridge is Integrity/Honesty.

Integrity comes from a Latin word integritas, to mean purity or moral uprightness. Integrity also means honesty. Integrity is the only pathway to personal prosperity and success. Success is discovery of your divinity, continued expansion of happiness, realization of important goals, living a miraculous life and possessing peace of mind in your life. Integrity is walking and working your words.

The third bridge to your personal prosperity is Commitment.

In life, you can only make it if you are a goal-oriented and meaningfully-specific person. If you do not know where you are going, chances of you getting lost are low. If you do not know where you are going all roads will lead you there. If you do not know where you are going when you get there you will not even know that you are there because you did not know where you were going in the first place. Commit yourself to doing something meaningful in your life and immediately you do that, providence will move in to help you.

The fourth bridge to your prosperity is Innovation.

Waldo Emerson said, ‘What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.’ Innovate and become your best and highest by mining your own Acres of Diamonds within you of divinity, talent, creativity, serendipity, ingenuity, inventiveness, resourcefulness and ideas. The metaphor of ‘Acres of Diamonds Within You’ expresses the great principle of the mind that your “Inner World” of spiritual mind is the only creative power that is the cause of all your “Outer World” of material experience.

Brian Tracy writes, ‘Wealth and opportunities are contained more in the person you ARE and the way you THINK than in the assets you have acquired in life so far.’ Your future lies more in your ability to apply your mind and intelligence to your work and your life than it does in your current job or situation. Because health, wealth and happiness are essentially mental, there are very few limits on how much of them you can acquire for yourself.’ In other words, success is an inside job because all the resources required for you to become successful are ALREADY within you.

Aminu Waziri declares, ‘We need to understand that there is tremendous power within us to fulfil every dream we have and to become whatever we want to become. By nature of our creation as human beings, we are already loaded with all the resources we need to be successful.’ Your greatest opportunities and riches are right now within you and where you are in your own abilities and capabilities. Your happiness, health and wealth originate from your positive inner states of mind.

What we call national integrity, prosperity or development is in effect an aggregate or sum total of individual integrities, prosperities or developments. When most individuals become prosperous is when the country also becomes prosperous because the country is an aggregate of individuals.

Focus your Thought, Word and Action on your Prosperity.