21st February 2025
The human nature is such that, no win ever quite satiates.
Once asked by a reporter how much money was enough money, business tycoon John D. Rockefeller replied, “Just a little bit more.”
Our current definition of more becomes our future definition of not enough as we set our sights on the next level that we convince ourselves will bring happiness and contentment.
Think about this in your own life:
How many times has the thing your younger self dreamed of become the thing you complain about after you’ve gotten it?
The house you longed for becomes the house you grumble is too small.
The car you obsessed over becomes the car you can’t wait to trade in.
The vacation you prayed for becomes the vacation you get stressed over.
The job and title you worked for all these years, is not giving you job satisfaction,
That thing you yearned for becomes the thing you can’t wait to enhance.
I recently came across this beautiful poem by Jean de La Fontaine that brings this idea to life:
“How many folks, in country and in town,
Neglect their principal affair;
And let, for want of due repair,
A real house fall down,
To build a castle in the air?”
This is the most dangerous trap in life: To allow the real house in front of us to fall down while we obsess over a castle in the air.
Your real house are the things you have, the things your younger self prayed for, the things your present self complains about.
There’s nothing wrong with building that castle in the air, but there is something wrong with allowing your real house to fall down while you do.
The endless quest for more will paradoxically leave you with less.
Socrates rightly said, “He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.”
Never let your quest for more distract you from the beauty of enough & stay blessed forever.