As human beings, it seems that once we attain what we think will make us whole, we grow bored quickly and need something new in order to feel satisfied. We are addicted to what we don’t have.
You could sit down at this very moment and list out all the reasons why you’re fortunate, and while you’re writing that list you would want nothing more. You could get together with a group of people that you care about and discuss rational ideas within this irrational society, and in that moment and the hours after, you would feel comfortable with what you have and who you are; contentment feels like a legitimate possibility. It’s when you turn on your television and the talking heads tell you that you need to be rich, famous, and flawless; that your thirst for more becomes unquenchable. You forget that you are enough. You find yourself making comparisons between your life and the life of someone you assume has it all figured out, and all of your accomplishments are never enough to satisfy you.
The issue with this “never enough” mentality is that we all have it to some degree. We collectively fail to realize that even the people who have “figured it out” are on some level still as lost and broken as everyone else. That’s the drawback of being a member of the generation more interested in documenting life-like activities, rather than creating a life. If we always seem confident in the pictures and words that we post, then maybe we will start to feel that way in real life. Everyone is constantly looking for validation in the form of likes and comments to give meaning to our twisted sense of self. We honestly believe that as long as people buy into the illusion that we are happy and everything is going great, that we won’t have to face reality.
Reality is that we want all the material c**p, social media fame, and worthless validation in order to feel accepted by others. The reason all of those things bring only temporary satisfaction is that they aren’t the answer. We all keep looking for other people to accept us in order to feel whole, when all that’s truly necessary is that we accept ourselves. We are in a universal competition for acceptance that no one wants a part of, but so few have the courage to stop competing.
What will ever be enough?
Photo credits: Google photos
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The thirst to achieve is what has driven many great people to be where they are and what they are..it can be qualified as a positive trait. But if thirst becomes unquenchable, one that can never be satisfied, then it transforms into greed, into anger, depression, need for recognition, need for even lies to keep you afloat.
It takes a lot of growing up and wisdom to believe that all this ‘so-called’ achievement and everything that we run after will prove futile at your last moments, when all that will remain is the true joys of simplicity and fulfillment.
As always, a thoughtful post, Andrei. Hope you are well. It has been a while and I have been trying to catch up with all that I have missed over the week.
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Wow. You’ve said it well than I did, Pranitha! Haha.
Always a pleasure to read your comments.
I’m doing pretty well. Thank you.
Truly, it has been a while. Hope everything’s fine with you too.
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All well, thank you. It was so so good to come back and read all that I have missed…kept the entire of my last week engaged in meaningful catching up
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I guess we’re on the same side of the fence with regards to catching up Pranitha 😅
All the best!
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🙂 Thank you, Andrei!
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I love this. We, as humans, always want something more. That even if we reached a good stage in life, we think that we can reach something better. On the other hand, social media sometimes really makes us not content with what we have. We tend to get jealous of what they have which leads to us comparing our lives with their lives.
It truly is one thing to accept yourself talaga especially when no one else does.
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Right. And it’s truly liberating once you’ve embraced who you really are.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts Amielle, and sorry for the rather late reply. I’ve been out of town and off the grid these past few days. Nice to read your comment though, first thing as I opened my WP ☺
Hope you’re doing well.
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I agree with you. This post made me thinking and all I can say for now is ‘enough’ may never actually be enough. As humans we have an unending desire. We need to keep a check and know when to stop.
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Exactly the point! The key is to know when to stop (especially competing with other people).
Thank you for sharing your views Moushmi ☺ Appreciate it.
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True points brought to fore by you Andrei. How much is enough is a question we should ask ourselves often. Else we will only be chasing a mirage forgetting to enjoy life with it’s innumerable delights!
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So true! Thank you for reading Radhika!
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