The Fantastic Life

Enough is Enough

 

I think about this week’s topic every single day. What is it that I want?  What is it that I need?  In today’s society, conventional thinking goes like this: I need a car to get to work.  I want a BMW.  I need a BMW.

Rule two of living the Fantastic Life is having the clarity to know what you need and what you want to create. We all know this to be true. Today is a simple reminder to think about it this week. If you want to watch a fabulous movie on this topic, watch “The Count of Monte Christo” released in 2002 staring Jim Caviezel.

Oh, you can also read Michael Josephson’s “What Will Matter” below.

Rule #2 from my book The Fantastic Life: Be Crystal Clear on What You Want
Take a minute to ask yourself the question in the first line of the below article: “What does it take to make you happy?” It’s only when you know what you want that you can align your actions to create your Fantastic Life.

Enough Is Enough

By: Michael Josephson

July 8, 2015

What does it take to make you happy? How much do you have to have to be grateful?

To the barefoot man, happiness is a pair of old shoes. To the man with old shoes, it’s a pair of new shoes. To the man with new shoes, it’s more stylish shoes. And, of course, the fellow with no feet would be happy to be barefoot.

This leads to the ancient insight: If you want to be happy, count your blessings, not your burdens. Measure your life by what you have, not by what you don’t.

Yet in our modern world where we’re continually exposed to endless increments of more and better – others with more money, better TVs, and bigger houses — this is very difficult.

For some people, the pleasure of having something good is drained as soon as they see someone else with something better. Our sense of contentment is created or destroyed by comparisons.

A life consumed with unfulfilled wants is an affliction. The antidote is the concept of “enough.”

This starts by thinking more clearly about the difference between our needs and our wants, between sufficiency and abundance.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with wanting more and striving to fill our lives with things and experiences that give us pleasure, so long as we don’t believe we need whatever we want.

When we think we need what we really only want, we make our desires preconditions to happiness, thereby diminishing our ability to appreciate and enjoy what we do have.

It’s easy to think that happiness is achieved by getting what we want when it’s really a matter of wanting what we get.

In the end, enough is enough.

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.

 

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