Career driven. Goal Oriented. Task Centered. Highly Productive.
#TheChase
Those words above have described me to a T for a lot of my life. But content…I don’t believe this word has ever been used to describe me. I constantly strive to progress, to move forward, and to achieve the next goal.
I have always been goal oriented — to a fault; a fault because sometimes I don’t know how to do nothing without trying to achieve something — even the littlest thing.
No matter how much we believe achieving that grand feat, obtaining that big ticket “item” that we have been striving to get for the longest time, or living in that “perfect” place is going to grant us even the slightest bit of contentment..it won’t.
Insanity is what this all is though. Why? Because we will never max out on goals, our potential, accomplishments, and dreams. These things will continue to tap us on the shoulder begging us for attention.
Desire never ends. Desire never stops. Desire never fades — and if it does it only gets transitioned into a desire for something else.
Most of us chase contentment by participating in the acquisition of people, things, money, experiences, and the like. We needn’t chase contentment though. Contentment awaits us; it has been since the beginning of time. We only need to stop and embrace it [contentment].
There is always something, someone, and somewhere better.
What is contentment?
Contentment is peace + gratitude + stillness + balance. Contentment is being free from fear and insecurity.
Contentment is not happiness; happiness is temporary. Happiness is fleeting. Happiness comes and goes and is dependent upon things, people, and situations outside of our control (outer-directed).
Contentment comes from being inner-directed, which is a state that is independent of outside variables. Life constantly changes. Situations constantly change. Opportunities constantly change. People constantly change. Even we constantly change. But something that does not have to change is our state of contentment.
Goals, dreams, visions, missions, wants, needs, and desires will always be there waiting for us to grab hold of them, but if we want to experience peace in the midst of all of these things, we must somehow find a way to be content along the journey of striving, accomplishing, obtaining, and receiving.