Week 3 | Contentment: A Perspective Shift

This weekend I want to talk about a word that is connected to gratitude and thanksgiving - it's this word here- CONTENtMENT. Contentment- is a state of satisfaction and of peaceful happiness. Doesn’t that sound amazing? Who would love to be satisfied in your job, in your family, with your home? Who would love to have an internal sense of peaceful happiness when you look in the mirror- or at your pay stub? We want to be satisfied, we want to have happiness. In fact, I would argue it's one of the strongest driving motivations for us. After all, it's built into our declaration of independence as one of inalienable rights; the pursuit of Happiness. And our pursuit of happiness is what drives our purchases, how we use our time, where we invest our energies, and even how we engage in relationships. And while we all want it, desperately, finding someone who is truly content is like finding a unicorn. It's so rare. That’s why Mick Jagger, after years of trying and trying, can’t get no satisfaction. I can identify with that- I’ve struggled with contentment in my life. Here’s how it showed up for me: As a future oriented person, I would always look at where I’m at and I’d think this: •It’ll be better when I’m out of High school and away from these jerks. •It’ll be better when I’m in this program and can start studying what I really want to study. •It’ll be better when I’m done with school and can actually start making some money. •it’ll be better when I’m married and we don’t have to keep driving across town to see each other. •It’ll be better when we aren’t renting anymore and have some more space for storage. •It’ll be better when we have our own washer and dryer and don’t have to go to the laundry mat. •It’ll be better when we have kids- then my mom will have to respect my wishes now that I control the baby. •It’ll be better when I finally get this rank or E rating or GS rating- because then I’ll be set for my retirement. The problem with the it’ll be better when mentality is this: it wishes away the most precious moments in life. When you are constantly searching for the next hit of accomplishment or accumulation, you fail to see what you’ve attained right in front of you. And then once you do accomplish those things, you spend the rest of your time reminiscing over how great it was to be free to hang out with your friend in school, the great support you had in school from your parents, the great feeling of finding love for the first time, the bragging rights of going to the laundromat with $10 worth of quarters.