I was reminded of this story tonight (by my father) that my grandfather once told us.
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Sethji (a wealthy man) was speaking with Munimji (his financial accountant) and asked him, “By the way Munimji, how much money do I have?”
Munimji, after glancing through some finical books, answered, “Let me say, you have enough money for your next seven generations to live without any financial worries.”
Moments later, surprisingly, Munimji saw some tears in Sethji’s eyes. He asked, “What happened Sethji?”
Sethji looking down said, “I’m worried how the eighth generation will manage. What will happen to them?”
Munimji said, “I don’t have the answer to this. We need to discuss it with some saintly person.”
Munimji and Sethji both went to visit a saintly person at his home at the outskirts of town. They took some rice and flour with them to offer to the saintly person’s family.
Munimji knocked on the door and the saintly man answered the door. Munimji said, “Sethji has brought some rice and flour for your family.” From the door, the saintly man looked towards his wife in the other room and told her that Sethji has brought some rice and flour for us. His wife walked up to the door and told them that the family had enough for the day and that Sethji should offer it to someone else who might need it. When Sethji asked them “What about tomorrow?”, she simply replied, “We will worry about tomorrow, tomorrow.”
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You don’t have to be like the saintly family, but also not like the wealthy man. There is an important balance to find. Along with being motivated, being content and calm is pretty awesome and important too.