That kind of stand takes a conscious effort, but once the stand is taken it unlocks new ways of seeing and being that lead to a surprising freedom and power with our money and our lives.

For instance, the United States, with 4 percent of the world’s population, generates 25 percent of the pollution that contributes to global warming. According to Geo 2000, a 1999 United Nations environmental report, the excessive consumption by the affluent minority of the earth’s population and the continued poverty of the majority are the two

Each financial choice you make is a powerful statement of who you are and what you care about. When you take a stand and have your money reflect that, it strengthens your sense of self.

The fundamental economic principles and structures of that bygone era were based on flawed assumptions and wrong thinking—about nature, about human potential, and about money itself.

also invite you to live a larger life—to see that when we really look at what we’ve got and let go of trying to accumulate more, we have the capacity for much greater lives than just “getting” and “having.” Everyone wants more than the good life for just themselves. They want the good life for all, and when you realize there is enough, you get in

than. They lived (and still do) in the experience and expression of enough, or what I call sufficiency.

Once we define our world as deficient, the total of our life energy, everything we think, everything we say, and everything we do—particularly with money—becomes an expression of an effort to overcome this sense of lack and the fear of losing to others or being left out.

Reciprocity was the social currency.

In our relationship with money, collaboration frees us from the obligatory chase to acquire more in order to feel we have enough, and becomes an opportunity to make a difference with what we have.