The Trust Factor
A daily lesson that focuses on achieving unparalleled success in life using ancient wisdom in modern times.
We will be discussing critical concepts as they are laid out in the book Sha'ar Habitachon - The Gate of Trust. Written 1000 years ago, the author reminds us of the values and wisdom that have allowed humanity to thrive throughout history.
The concept of trusting in a higher power that exists purely for our benefit, puts us in the drivers seat with absolute confidence to achieve greatness.
Eliminate: Fear, Hatred, Anxiety, Depression, Jealousy, Greed...forever!
* Note that some terminology will be in the original Hebrew or Aramaic which I will always follow with the English translation.
The Trust Factor
Episode 109 - Beyond Money: Time's Infinite Value in a Finite Life
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.
Good morning everybody and welcome to the Trust Factor. This is the podcast that guarantees your success when you implement its divine, age-old teachings. We are finishing off what we discussed yesterday by saying that a person is unsettled when he feels that he has not done everything that he can do to improve his lot, or that someone else who worked harder than him received something that he could have. In other words, we are always looking at everybody else and we are always striving to achieve more, 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 bonused out more. I closed this deal. Therefore, I should be making so much more. I should be moved up the food chain. We always are striving for more, and we look at other people who are making more and think I could be just like that person. If only I do what they do, then I will be as they are, and it is simply not true. You are you and they are them. They have different obligations than you. They have different tests than you do. Yours is unique to you and the circumstances that you find yourself in are perfect for your purpose, in order for you to achieve your outcomes. So don't compare yourself. That's why jealousy is a problem, because when you're constantly thinking about what other people have and think, boy, would I like to have that. Or, even worse, god forbid you think to yourself why does that person have it? They don't deserve it, I deserve it. In other words, you don't want somebody else to benefit, you would rather you benefit. And even worse than all that is that if you don't benefit, you don't want them to benefit. So if you're not going to have it, nobody's going to have it. There are people out there like that, my friends. Sad way to live. What does he say about it? He says that the attitude of trust regarding such funds meaning extra comforts, the luxuries is different than the attitude regarding funds in the first category, which are basic necessities. We said this yesterday that a person is guaranteed to receive your sustenance and whatever else you need to survive Every single day that you exist in this world. It's coming your way. You have to make your reasonable effort, but that is coming your way. It says, however, with regards to the luxuries, that, by contrast, one is not guaranteed extra funds and comforts. Thus, for such things, trust means recognizing that God will send him whatever he has ordained for him at the precise time that he has ordained my, my friends, this is one of our biggest challenges. It really really is.
Speaker 1:I could tell you all these things till I'm blue in the face, but the reality is that we are programmed in a way that, especially the longer you've been living a secular life, these concepts are very high level. They may seem entry, they may seem easy in theory, but in practice it is an entirely different situation when it comes to putting these ideas into practice. I get questions all the time, and I just got one from another good friend and he's asking me something that kind of fits into this. He understands the principles, he gets it. You know the processes by which Rabbeinu Bachi is telling you God runs this world. He understands. Okay, I get it, god runs the world based on these processes.
Speaker 1:But how come A, b and C, or how come D, e and F? In other words, what we find ourselves constantly doing is telling ourselves, on one hand, we understand that there is a system that God runs by and that we need to plug into, but at the same time, we don't necessarily agree with it. That's really what we're saying? What we're saying is I would do it differently If I ran the world. I wouldn't do it that way. It's like when we say, when we win the lottery, I would give everybody money and I would make everybody 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 do have, take an accounting, take an inventory of your life and be grateful for absolutely everything that you have, and then you will come to the realization that you don't want to run this world, that he's done a phenomenal job and he's going to continue doing a phenomenal job. We just need to learn to trust in that process, resign to it, give up control, give up the desire to control outcomes.
Speaker 1:That's most of the questions I get surround the issue of why not do it this way? Or I don't understand why it has to be like that. I was there also, my friends. I get it. We're not supposed to understand it. Trying to understand it is what causes you grief. Trying to understand why it is like this and not like that is what's going to get you upset. And really what you're saying is, even though you may not feel that way. Subconsciously, somewhere in the back of your mind, you're saying I don't trust the process. The only way to come to trust this process, my friends, is to analyze your life and be grateful for all the wonderful things that you have.
Speaker 1:Start with your eyesight. Then work through all of your other bodily functions that are working well for you. Then look at your family, then look at your job. Then look at the bank account. Then look in your driveway. Then look at your family, then look at your job, then look at the bank account, then look in your driveway. Then look at your home. Look at your surroundings, look at the country you're living in, look at all these opportunities you've been given. You could spend hours and hours a day being grateful by reflecting on the things that you do have and not on the things that you think you deserve or that you would want or that you think are better for you. You simply don't know what's good for you. You think you do, you think you do, but you really don't, especially when it comes to the evil inclinations of this world, and the two biggest inclinations are money, which bring power, and relations between individuals. So when it comes to those, it is so hard for us to release control and resign to the process. The sooner you do that, the happier you'll be.
Speaker 1:Now we move in to discussing the test of wealth. Right? Why is it that it is such a test to have wealth? And not only is it a test, but it's one of the biggest. We just said it is one of the two largest evil inclinations. Let's read he says like this evil inclinations. Let's read he says like this sometimes the creator channels the livelihood of many people through the hands of one of them.
Speaker 1:One person earns a lot of money and is meant to support others with it, not to spend it on luxuries. There's an opportunity to fail right. How many of us have been there? You start to make really good money for the first time in your life and your natural tendency is not a jab at anybody. This is just the way we're programmed. The natural tendency is to start with you, number one, and there's good reason for it. There's very good reason for it because charity starts at home. So when you need money, you got to look at yourself and your family first. That makes sense. So if you've been working hard but you haven't been able to make ends meet and suddenly you're making ends meet, then your first priority is number one, and I get that, and so it should be.
Speaker 1:The problem becomes when we get into this issue of excess. We're talking about wealth here. Now you've got luxuries, or the opportunity to get into luxuries. Now you're sitting with a pile of money that now can be invested, or it's sitting in an investment account and you have to decide what am I going to do with it. Am I going to buy myself a brand new sports car, a luxury vehicle, or am I going to put my kids in religious Hebrew day school? Am I going to buy myself another property, a bigger cottage, so that I could spend less time there, because as it is I don't spend any time in the cottage? Or am I going to look outside of myself and think who else needs it, who's suffering, which institutions can use the help or, even better, individuals who are suffering, who are lacking, who have families and cannot make their weeks or their months end.
Speaker 1:It's hard for us to acknowledge that when things are going smoothly for us, people need to understand that there are so many individuals out there who cannot make their month end. They just can't. You don't hear about them, but they're there. And if you do hear about them and you're still looking inwards, even though you've taken care of your necessities, you've got all of the things that you need and many of the things that you want, and yet, when you come into an opportunity, when you have excess wealth available to you, and now the question is where do I spend it? On me? Or where do I invest it so it can make me more money? Investing it so that it can make money so that you can give to other people and support organizations Wonderful. But am I investing it for that or am I investing it for myself? That's the question. He continues.
Speaker 1:This is done in order to test whether that person will serve God or rebel against him. Basically what I just said Serving God means taking care of the world, doing what he does, emulating him. His entire purpose is for us is to do and to sustain this world. Therefore, that is our job as well. So when we fail, we've taken this additional wealth and we've invested it back in us.
Speaker 1:Not talking about the basic necessities, I'm talking about the excess, the luxuries. How much are you involved in luxuries and how much are you involved in helping other people just to get their bare necessities, or maybe even a drop of luxury here and there that everybody should be entitled to at one point or another. Are you so busy failing this test that you're only thinking about yourself, or are you killing this test by thinking about others? Not just yourself. You have to think about yourself, but are you also thinking about others? And it's not just money, by the way, guys. It's not just dollars and cents.
Speaker 1:It's time and effort, it's attention, it's taking a moment to show somebody that you care about them, inquiring into their well-being, giving of your time. Your time is 10 times more important, a thousand times, a million times more important than your money. The number one asset that you have in this life is time. You will never get back the seconds and the minutes that have just passed us right now. They will never come again. They are gone.
Speaker 1:What you did with them is what separates you from everybody else. What you've done with that time is the differentiator between success and failure, between achieving your goals and your purpose in this life and not achieving them. God forbid your goals and your purpose in this life and not achieving them. God forbid when you give of that time, that precious, precious time to somebody else in order to help them. You give them a smile, you mentor them, you guide them. Sometimes that is infinitely greater than giving them money.
Speaker 1:Money is a means to an end, but if you give them a means to a livelihood, it is exponentially greater. You all know the saying give a man a fish and you feed him for a. You give them a means to a livelihood. It is exponentially greater. You all know the saying give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. That's how it works. So if you're teaching somebody and you're mentoring them and you're guiding them and you're pointing them in the right direction, you're giving them an opportunity to take care of themselves and sustain themselves. The dollars are not the right answer. The right answer is give somebody the opportunity to become self-sufficient. That wraps it up for today, my friends. We continue tomorrow.
