Episode 109 - Beyond Money: Time's Infinite Value in a Finite Life

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Ever caught yourself thinking "I worked harder, so I deserve more" while eyeing someone else's success? The Trust Factor podcast tackles this universal struggle head-on, revealing how comparison and jealousy keep us trapped in perpetual dissatisfaction.

We explore the fundamental distinction between basic necessities—which are guaranteed through reasonable effort—and luxuries, which follow a different divine timeline. This difference challenges our tendency to control outcomes and question why things aren't happening as we believe they should. The friction between intellectually understanding these principles and emotionally accepting them creates our greatest spiritual tests.

Gratitude emerges as the practical antidote to our comparison trap. By systematically inventorying our blessings—from physical abilities to family relationships, from employment to living situations—we shift focus from what's lacking to the abundance already present. This practice helps release our desperate grip on controlling outcomes, particularly regarding the two most powerful temptations: wealth and relationships.

The podcast examines wealth as a spiritual test, revealing how some individuals are positioned to channel resources to support many others. When excess comes our way, do we immediately funnel it toward personal luxuries, or do we recognize our responsibility to help others meet basic needs? Most profoundly, we discover that while money matters, our greatest asset is time—a resource we can never recover once spent. When we invest this precious commodity in mentoring and guiding others toward self-sufficiency, we create impact that far exceeds any monetary contribution.

Ready to break free from the comparison trap and discover true contentment? Subscribe to The Trust Factor podcast and transform your relationship with wealth, time, and purpose.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning everybody and welcome to the
Trust Factor.
This is the podcast thatguarantees your success when you
implement its divine, age-oldteachings.
We are finishing off what wediscussed yesterday by saying
that a person is unsettled whenhe feels that he has not done
everything that he can do toimprove his lot, or that someone
else who worked harder than himreceived something that he

(00:23):
could have.
In other words, we are alwayslooking at everybody else and we
are always striving to achievemore, and when we work hard and
we see other people working hard, we automatically equate that
with making more money.
I worked harder on this project.
Therefore, I should be bonusedout more.
I closed this deal.

(00:43):
Therefore, I should be makingso much more.
I should be moved up the foodchain.
We always are striving for more, and we look at other people
who are making more and think Icould be just like that person.
If only I do what they do, thenI will be as they are, and it
is simply not true.
You are you and they are them.
They have different obligationsthan you.

(01:06):
They have different tests thanyou do.
Yours is unique to you and thecircumstances that you find
yourself in are perfect for yourpurpose, in order for you to
achieve your outcomes.
So don't compare yourself.
That's why jealousy is aproblem, because when you're
constantly thinking about whatother people have and think, boy

(01:28):
, would I like to have that.
Or, even worse, god forbid youthink to yourself why does that
person have it?
They don't deserve it, Ideserve it.
In other words, you don't wantsomebody else to benefit, you
would rather you benefit.
And even worse than all that isthat if you don't benefit, you
don't want them to benefit.
So if you're not going to haveit, nobody's going to have it.
There are people out there likethat, my friends.

(01:50):
Sad way to live.
What does he say about it?
He says that the attitude oftrust regarding such funds
meaning extra comforts, theluxuries is different than the
attitude regarding funds in thefirst category, which are basic
necessities.
We said this yesterday that aperson is guaranteed to receive

(02:10):
your sustenance and whateverelse you need to survive Every
single day that you exist inthis world.
It's coming your way.
You have to make yourreasonable effort, but that is
coming your way.
It says, however, with regardsto the luxuries, that, by
contrast, one is not guaranteedextra funds and comforts.

(02:33):
Thus, for such things, trustmeans recognizing that God will
send him whatever he hasordained for him at the precise
time that he has ordained my, myfriends, this is one of our
biggest challenges.
It really really is.
I could tell you all thesethings till I'm blue in the face
, but the reality is that we areprogrammed in a way that,

(02:54):
especially the longer you'vebeen living a secular life,
these concepts are very highlevel.
They may seem entry, they mayseem easy in theory, but in
practice it is an entirelydifferent situation when it
comes to putting these ideasinto practice.
I get questions all the time,and I just got one from another
good friend and he's asking mesomething that kind of fits into

(03:18):
this.
He understands the principles,he gets it.
You know the processes by whichRabbeinu Bachi is telling you
God runs this world.
He understands.
Okay, I get it, god runs theworld based on these processes.
But how come A, b and C, or howcome D, e and F?
In other words, what we findourselves constantly doing is

(03:41):
telling ourselves, on one hand,we understand that there is a
system that God runs by and thatwe need to plug into, but at
the same time, we don'tnecessarily agree with it.
That's really what we're saying?
What we're saying is I would doit differently If I ran the
world.
I wouldn't do it that way.
It's like when we say, when wewin the lottery, I would give

(04:01):
everybody money and I would makeeverybody happy and I would buy
everybody homes.
You don't run the world.
Be okay with that, be grateful.
You don't run the world.
And then look at what you dohave, take an accounting, take
an inventory of your life and begrateful for absolutely

(04:22):
everything that you have, andthen you will come to the
realization that you don't wantto run this world, that he's
done a phenomenal job and he'sgoing to continue doing a
phenomenal job.
We just need to learn to trustin that process, resign to it,
give up control, give up thedesire to control outcomes.

(04:42):
That's most of the questions Iget surround the issue of why
not do it this way?
Or I don't understand why ithas to be like that.
I was there also, my friends.
I get it.
We're not supposed tounderstand it.
Trying to understand it is whatcauses you grief.
Trying to understand why it islike this and not like that is

(05:04):
what's going to get you upset.
And really what you're sayingis, even though you may not feel
that way.
Subconsciously, somewhere inthe back of your mind, you're
saying I don't trust the process.
The only way to come to trustthis process, my friends, is to
analyze your life and begrateful for all the wonderful
things that you have.
Start with your eyesight.

(05:24):
Then work through all of yourother bodily functions that are
working well for you.
Then look at your family, thenlook at your job.
Then look at the bank account.
Then look in your driveway.
Then look at your family, thenlook at your job, then look at
the bank account, then look inyour driveway.
Then look at your home.
Look at your surroundings, lookat the country you're living in
, look at all theseopportunities you've been given.
You could spend hours and hoursa day being grateful by
reflecting on the things thatyou do have and not on the

(05:46):
things that you think youdeserve or that you would want
or that you think are better foryou.
You simply don't know what'sgood for you.
You think you do, you think youdo, but you really don't,
especially when it comes to theevil inclinations of this world,
and the two biggestinclinations are money, which
bring power, and relationsbetween individuals.

(06:07):
So when it comes to those, itis so hard for us to release
control and resign to theprocess.
The sooner you do that, thehappier you'll be.
Now we move in to discussing thetest of wealth.
Right?
Why is it that it is such atest to have wealth?
And not only is it a test, butit's one of the biggest.
We just said it is one of thetwo largest evil inclinations.

(06:30):
Let's read he says like thisevil inclinations.
Let's read he says like thissometimes the creator channels
the livelihood of many peoplethrough the hands of one of them
.
One person earns a lot of moneyand is meant to support others
with it, not to spend it onluxuries.
There's an opportunity to failright.
How many of us have been there?
You start to make really goodmoney for the first time in your

(06:52):
life and your natural tendencyis not a jab at anybody.
This is just the way we'reprogrammed.
The natural tendency is tostart with you, number one, and
there's good reason for it.
There's very good reason for itbecause charity starts at home.
So when you need money, you gotto look at yourself and your
family first.
That makes sense.
So if you've been working hardbut you haven't been able to

(07:14):
make ends meet and suddenlyyou're making ends meet, then
your first priority is numberone, and I get that, and so it
should be.
The problem becomes when we getinto this issue of excess.
We're talking about wealth here.
Now you've got luxuries, or theopportunity to get into
luxuries.
Now you're sitting with a pileof money that now can be
invested, or it's sitting in aninvestment account and you have

(07:35):
to decide what am I going to dowith it.
Am I going to buy myself abrand new sports car, a luxury
vehicle, or am I going to put mykids in religious Hebrew day
school?
Am I going to buy myselfanother property, a bigger
cottage, so that I could spendless time there, because as it

(07:56):
is I don't spend any time in thecottage?
Or am I going to look outsideof myself and think who else
needs it, who's suffering, whichinstitutions can use the help
or, even better, individuals whoare suffering, who are lacking,
who have families and cannotmake their weeks or their months
end.
It's hard for us to acknowledgethat when things are going

(08:17):
smoothly for us, people need tounderstand that there are so
many individuals out there whocannot make their month end.
They just can't.
You don't hear about them, butthey're there.
And if you do hear about themand you're still looking inwards
, even though you've taken careof your necessities, you've got
all of the things that you needand many of the things that you
want, and yet, when you comeinto an opportunity, when you

(08:39):
have excess wealth available toyou, and now the question is
where do I spend it?
On me?
Or where do I invest it so itcan make me more money?
Investing it so that it canmake money so that you can give
to other people and supportorganizations Wonderful.
But am I investing it for thator am I investing it for myself?
That's the question.
He continues.
This is done in order to testwhether that person will serve

(09:02):
God or rebel against him.
Basically what I just saidServing God means taking care of
the world, doing what he does,emulating him.
His entire purpose is for us isto do and to sustain this world
.
Therefore, that is our job aswell.
So when we fail, we've takenthis additional wealth and we've

(09:23):
invested it back in us.
Not talking about the basicnecessities, I'm talking about
the excess, the luxuries.
How much are you involved inluxuries and how much are you
involved in helping other peoplejust to get their bare
necessities, or maybe even adrop of luxury here and there
that everybody should beentitled to at one point or
another.
Are you so busy failing thistest that you're only thinking

(09:46):
about yourself, or are youkilling this test by thinking
about others?
Not just yourself.
You have to think aboutyourself, but are you also
thinking about others?
And it's not just money, by theway, guys.
It's not just dollars and cents.
It's time and effort, it'sattention, it's taking a moment
to show somebody that you careabout them, inquiring into their

(10:07):
well-being, giving of your time.
Your time is 10 times moreimportant, a thousand times, a
million times more importantthan your money.
The number one asset that youhave in this life is time.
You will never get back theseconds and the minutes that
have just passed us right now.
They will never come again.
They are gone.
What you did with them is whatseparates you from everybody

(10:31):
else.
What you've done with that timeis the differentiator between
success and failure, betweenachieving your goals and your
purpose in this life and notachieving them.
God forbid your goals and yourpurpose in this life and not
achieving them.
God forbid when you give ofthat time, that precious,
precious time to somebody elsein order to help them.
You give them a smile, youmentor them, you guide them.

(10:52):
Sometimes that is infinitelygreater than giving them money.
Money is a means to an end, butif you give them a means to a
livelihood, it is exponentiallygreater.
You all know the saying give aman a fish and you feed him for
a.
You give them a means to alivelihood.
It is exponentially greater.
You all know the saying give aman a fish and you feed him for
a day.
Teach a man to fish and youfeed him for a lifetime.
That's how it works.
So if you're teaching somebodyand you're mentoring them and

(11:14):
you're guiding them and you'repointing them in the right
direction, you're giving them anopportunity to take care of
themselves and sustainthemselves.
The dollars are not the rightanswer.
The right answer is givesomebody the opportunity to
become self-sufficient.
That wraps it up for today, myfriends.
We continue tomorrow.