I want it Now!

It’s the festive season! I’ve already eaten my weight in mince pies, I have tried to buy everything the kids want and I have a cupboard full of wine to get through. And in a week’s time it’ll be 2022 and we’ll all be writing resolutions as we plan what the coming year will hold for us and how we’ll achieve more than ever before, the job, the house, the car, the fitness etc etc etc.

We WANT so much. And every year we want more, it’s a never ending cycle of want. This ‘want’ can lead to us achieving more, but it can be a negative thing to always be wanting more than you already have (or at least perceived as negative). Before we get to the new year here is my take on it…

You only want what you haven’t got

Think about it… once you have it you no longer want it because it’s now yours. When you finally get the thing you want you’re happy right, because you now have what you wanted?

WRONG

Your ‘want’ for things simply moves on to other things… You now want something else. And there will always be something else. The chances are there is a list of things/stuff/achievements/accolades that you want. So when does your want for more end?

Facebook, social media and TV don’t help. Everywhere you look people seem to have the best lives ever, amazing jobs, relationships, cars, holidays, in an endless competition of one upmanship. And we are lead to believe we need to have lives as shiny as theirs too. We know social media and tv isn’t reality, but if that’s all we see it drives all we want. And we can never achieve the perfect life, so we are left wanting forever.

You cannot be truly happy while you still want what you haven’t got

It’s a simple statement that in the right conversation could be very philosophical and inspiring, but is it true? If this statement is true the only way to be truly happy is to stop wanting more things. Stop wanting a bigger house, better car, better job, better clothes, more, more, more.

The path to true happiness sounds simple in a buzz phrase – if you’re a monk on the top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. But for us every day folk it’s not that easy, because we have an internal drive. Inside all of us we have this basic human drive to survive, to be better and be strong to live another day. We can’t just switch it off and pretend it isn’t there because everyday it is there, giving you the energy to get out of bed, to achieve new things and make the most of life.

So where does this leave us? We want what we haven’t got but need to stop wanting to be happy, but can’t stop wanting as this drives us to push ourselves to be better.

Happiness is being content.

We don’t need everything, and we don’t need it now. It’s nice to achieve more, get a new car, nicer clothes, higher salary, but it’s not always essential. Be happy for what you have, not unhappy about what you don’t have.

Keep that desire to be better, but try to find the middle ground. Keep your ‘want’ for more, but remember you own it, rather than the feeling of always wanting more owning you.

Let’s keep wanting more and making a better life for ourselves, our families and our future children’s families.

As we approach 2022 and plan for the year to come lets be bold in our ambition. Let’s be better, faster, stronger and achieve more than we ever thought possible. But, realise that at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter (it’s just a job, this is LinkedIn, it doesn’t define you). Be happy and content in who you are and all you have. ?

Take a breath, focus yourself on what matters, and start again.

We are just cleverly assembled bits of carbon on a ball of rock flying through a vast emptiness of space.