Self Help

One way to overcome the perceived need to work hard, instead of smart and creative, is to come to grips with the issue of security. In a world filled with much uncertainty, material wealth is the one thing that is supposed to provide the economic, physical, and emotional security everyone so much desires. Accountants, stockbrokers, financial planners, bankers, and retirement consultants will convince you that building an impressive portfolio of real estate, stocks, bonds, and T- bills is the only way to deal with all this uncertainty.

Security, as traditionally defined, doesn’t contribute nearly as much to emotional comfort as most people believe. Security based on materialistic and monetary pursuits is tenuous at best. The super rich can be killed in car accidents and terrorist attacks just as easily as the poor can be. Their health can fail at a much earlier age than that of someone with less money. And most rich people worry about losing their money in the event of a monetary collapse. On one hand, we want and strive for security; on the other, there may not be anything that even closely resembles security.

To get a better idea of how much security we can get through money, take a hard look at the type of individuals who are most obsessed with security. Security-minded individuals tend to be rigid, unbending, inadaptable, and uncreative. Their expenditures are usually limited to basic food, heat, clothing, and shelter. They won’t part with their money even for necessities, unless they know they are getting the best possible deal. Decreasing their bank accounts for a big expenditure brings extreme anxiety, worry, and fear and a sense of vulnerability. Every dollar spent seems to rob them of some inner sense of comfort.

To some, security is a steady job with normal work hours, unambiguous activities, strictly defined duties, and a foreseeable future. These people need a steady paycheck and will settle for a regular income with modest increases in pay. They don’t realize that holding on to a job does not bring true security. Jobs in modern times aren’t as secure as the jobs of just a few years ago. A job may mean security for paying bills today, but when security-minded people lose their jobs, they lose their security.

It’s no wonder that Tennessee Williams declared, “Security is a kind of death.” The security minded individual demonstrates, better than anyone else, that preoccupation with security is incompatible with living a relaxed, prosperous life. Paradoxically, to feel more secure in this ever-changing world, people must become less concerned with security as defined in the modern-day sense.

You may be surprised to learn that the present-day concept of security is far different from the original meaning of the word. If anyone in this world has security, as originally defined, that security isn’t based on money and material possessions. The word security actually means “without care” which has Latin origin. In this regard, true security is an internal state of being, not determined by how much money an individual is able to acquire.