How to Stop Being Greedy

By Abbot Christopher Jamison

Here are three steps to restrain greed:

1. Recognise how it works for you
Greed is about the attraction of wealth and begins with apparently harmless thoughts: ”what I have at present is not good enough and needs replacing.” Sometimes this is, of course, true: if the bucket has a hole in it, you need a new bucket; if the dress is very old, get a new one. But, so often, that’s not the case; it’s just that we really fancy the latest iPod or the latest fashion. Fashion is the hardest one to call: we can condemn our children to misery if we make them wear old-fashioned clothes but we still need to prevent them growing up impulsively buying the hottest new thing. If children only deal with greed by getting what they want, then they grow up to be miserable adults because even when they’re wealthy, they’ll still want more. And notice that even our language links unhappiness and avarice: the word miser is the root of miserable. Each of us needs to recognise and contain our own greed if we are to live happy and fulfilled lives.

2. Tell yourself a better story
Greed is the product of our imagination, not of our bodies. The attraction of food and sex is different from the attraction of wealth: humans are hard wired to respond physically when food and sex are attractively presented, but the same is not true of money. Once life’s basic necessities have been met, the rest is determined by each person’s description of the good life, their personal story. We have to avoid the pitfalls of distorted descriptions of happiness that actually lead to frustration. We need to describe to ourselves a good life that is balanced, long-term and generous, the opposite of the consumer good life that is indulgent, short-term and self-centred.

3. Take stock of your life, literally
Once a year in Lent, English Benedictine monks have the custom of writing out ”a poverty bill.” They write down an inventory of everything they have for their personal use and hand it to the abbot. It’s a very revealing exercise and enables them to ask: do I need all this? An excellent rule of thumb is this: if you haven’t used an item in the last twelve months since the last poverty bill, then you probably don’t need it, so you can give it away. This is a wonderful way to heighten self-awareness about material possessions, is quite liberating, and you may be amazed to discover what you don’t need.