Wealth Dysmorphic Disorder

My mind plays tricks on me. There is no doubt about it. I noticed it first in my journey to lose weig ht. I was chubby. Not obese. Not fat. I just had a littler extra weight. A few years back I discovered tracking. And the weight came off. Ten pounds. Twenty pounds. Twenty five pounds. I would marvel at the way my body looked in the mirror. Until I didn’t. At some pointy my mind became so accustomed to my new body that It no longer felt new anymore. It fell, well, regular. I began to see the bulges at the waist and the imperfections of the abdomen. Looking in the mirror, I no longer looked thin to myself anymore. I looked a little pudgy. Kind of like before I lost weight. A strange phenomenon for sure. Until I realized that it was pervasive in other parts of my life. There is a analogous wealth dyspmorphic disorder that many of us face also.

Our riches no longer feel like they are making us rich anymore.

It’s The Climb

The problem with wealth is it is often something not tangible. My net wort h may be climbing, and yet I look no different. In everyday life, there may be no external appearance that anything has changed (especially for stealth wealth practitioners). There is no proof except numbers on a ledger sheet.

And this is all seems so ephemeral.

Looking back. Most of us realize that the joy was in the climb. The overcoming desperation, setting a plan, and making progress is what happiness actually looks like.

Once a goal is reached, there is an annoying short time before the new state becomes the norm. Then, all the sudden, just like my bulging abdomen, all those millions in the bank don’t really seem like that much. The wealth dysmorphic disorder kicks in and your mind starts to play tricks on you.

Believe it or not, you crave the climb more than the destination. And so you create new, more audacious goals.

Reassessment

Maybe this is not such a bad thing. The wealth dysmorphic disorder could logically lead to reassessment, and could indeed be more profitable in the end. The peak can be re calibrated and new goals set. Maybe seven figures is not enough, and one should reach for eight figures.

Certainly Rome would have never been built if the early occupants had been happy remaining a small trade town. Someone has to have the big unobtainable dreams to make the world go round.

What is left when one stops striving?

Enough

What we are really arguing about here is enough. Is there such thing as enough? The wealth dysmorphic disorder would tell you no. Just like any good treadmill, once you reach a steady state, the only way forward is to move a little faster. Run a little harder.

Yet, there still is this idea of happiness or at least contentedness. Being continually in a race to be better or produce more doesn’t seem like a very comfortable long term existence to me.

Does it to you?

Final Thoughts

The wealth dysmorphic disorder is the distortion of one’s feelings about wealth once a goal is attained. Like so many of the treadmills in our life, it is often hard to hop off once we are running at full speed.

Reaching financial peace, however, requires all of us to come up with a definition of enough and move on.

Just like when I look in the mirror. Although my eye may see all the imperfections, my mind is smart enough to realize that I am far healthier than previously.

And that should really be the only point. Shouldn’t it?