Learn To Be More Content
July 3, 2008 – 4:05 pm
It’s difficult to have “enough”. Most of us want more of something. More money. More time with family. More time outside of work. More friends. More more more. Reaching the contentment is difficult in a consumer-driven world, and given our own limited resources it’s amazing any of us can save rather than spend every penny that comes into our lives!
I’m trying to be more content with what I’ve been given. After all, the average person on planet Earth earns ~$8,200 USD per year. That makes me rich on a global scale at least.
It’s also amazing what we can do if pushed into a corner. For example, I could probably cut my expenses in half if I had to in order to save the life of a family member. I could work a second job (or third job) if needed. I could find a way to make ends meet if I was laid off or suddenly became ill and had to exit the workforce for a period of time.
Situations can force us to change, but I don’t want an undesirable event to teach me how to be content. I think contentment is mostly just based on what you’re used to. If you’re used to having a widget (sorry to go ‘microeconomic’ on you) and it gets taken away, you feel bad. If you never had a widget to begin with you wouldn’t necessarily feel bad.
My solution to this issue is to ramp back on an item until it hurts a bit and then ease up. For example, if I start to feel like I’m ungrateful towards my entertainment choices I pull back on my entertainment until it’s uncomfortable. Then, after a week or a month it’s easy to reinstate some of those activities and feel like my quality of life has taken a dramatic step up!
Here are some areas I struggle with:
- entertainment - movies and dining out
- food - buying dessert items, more soda than we should consume anyway, etc.
- car’s - this one’s a tough one for me, because the car I drive is already on the low end of the spectrum. I definitely feel more content when I drive my wife to work though (which is about 45 minutes round trip out of my way).
- work - just talk to your friends that work at other companies. My employer is great to compared to a lot of other choices in this area!
- housing - go on a mission trip or do some international travel. I’ve heard even a lot of European hotels are a bit on the low end of ‘fine living’
On a related note I also review my budget monthly to ensure that I’m getting enough joy out of my purchases (a la Your Money Or Your Life). It keeps me conscience of all the blessings I’ve been given and ensures I’m not wasting away those resources.
FrugalDad wrote an article on contentment as well that I highly recommend.
Image Credit: xtheowl
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4 Responses to “Learn To Be More Content”
Thanks for mentioning my article. I think contentment is one of the more powerful personal finance allies. Without it we crave everything, but with it we are able to resist opportunities created by marketing machines to separate us from our money.
By
Frugal Dad (Who am I?) on Jul 3, 2008
“entertainment - movies and dining out”
I think there should always be some middle ground. If you abuse this every single day it’s a problem, however now and then would not cut you as bad.
By
Moneymonk (Who am I?) on Jul 7, 2008