Becoming Content With Less

not prepared for less

I think part of the struggle is that young people are not prepared to take a step (or several steps) down from what they had with their parents, or what their parents had at their age. I just don't think parents talk to their kids about how much saving, struggle, sacrifice, luck, and planning went into that 3-bedroom 2-bath house. Instead, all we see are media examples or people just getting everything easily.

It is human nature to want more. I think to be satisfied with less we have to remind ourselves often of a few things:

1. Look at how much we really do have compared to what is really the minimum needed to survive. We are rich already. We aren't living in mud huts with dust floors, with only one set of clothes and no other property, no medical care, walking 10 miles daily for water that isn't clean, and eating only rice day in and day out.

2. Look at what really makes us happy. It usually isn't stuff. Prove it to yourself by hiding your favorite objects from yourself for a month. You'll soon realize you get by just fine without most of them (the computer would be the hardest for me, but I know I would adapt).

3. We always think we want more home, more space, more land. But when you get it, you aren't really happier. Having it brings on more work - more maintenance, more debt, more cleaning, more taxes, etc. Adding more space just to hold more unnecessary stuff does not improve quality of life. Same thing with that new car - you'll get a buzz from it for awhile, sure. But is it really a $30,000 buzz? Doesn't it get you from A to B pretty much the same way as your older car? Psychology studies of people who won the lottery show they aren't happier, they don't have fewer problems than the rest of us. In fact, that sudden wealth often brings a lot of stress. Instead, psychology studies show that however happy you are, you're likely to be that happy regardless of your circumstances taking a drastic turn for the better or worse, aside from short-term fluctuations.

otowi of CO @ Apr 13, 2009 10:28:48 AM