Enough: Where Do We Draw the Line?
Our modern life has become obsessed with more - more clothes, more gadgets, more sales, more growth. Consumerism at its finest. We’ve become so focused on more that we fail to see our basic needs have been met, and then some. So many of us are in this rat race, trying to keep up with the other, not even realizing what we are actually doing. I’ve been guilty of this myself and over the last year I’ve been asking myself, what is enough? What does enough look like for me? Do I have enough to be fully satisfied right now?
These are not easy questions to ask in a culture that is barreling full speed ahead, consuming everything in its path with no end in sight. There are many people who have already stood up and said, enough. This manifests in many different ways, some for environmental reasons, some to save money, others to consume less and improve their well being. No matter the reason, every little bit of resistance when compounded together can slow consumerism down considerably. Why do this? What’s the point? Well, all of this gluttony has made our society sick and if we don’t do something soon it could kill us.
As Americans, we are pretty stressed out, and according to the American Psychological Association, the top stress inducers are money and jobs. And for good reason, our culture finds much of its worth in these two things. Our conversations usually start with questions about our careers subconsciously ranking people on the cultural success scale. What if we could stop all the stress by changing our view of the culture? Figuring out what enough looks like is a great way to begin. Here are some questions I’ve been asking myself:
When do I have enough…
Money/Debt. This is probably the biggest and most personally impacting decision you can make. For some, the answer is never, for others it's a certain number. Maybe it’s a figure set by a bank or business in the form of debt. Whatever the case may be, determine what that figure looks like for you. Maybe you don’t need that brand new car, or five bedroom house, when what you have works great. Or maybe you should take that part-time position with less pay but can enjoy more time.
Things. There is a gadget for just about anything you can think of now, and with the internet, it’s even easier to find. Do we really need any of this stuff though? Is it making us any happier, or are we just paying for it to take up space? It’s not surprising then that the U.S. self-storage industry rakes in 38 billion dollars in revenue annually. As the saying goes “less is more” and that’s certainly true for stuff. The less we have the more freedom, space, and money we receive in return.
“Time is what we want most, but what we use worse.”
Responsibilities
Out of everything we have, time is our greatest asset. It’s also one of the only things we can’t get more of, and we are notoriously bad at using it. We fill our calendar with obligations, meetings, career advancements, etc. then wonder where the time went. It’s been right in front of us all along, we just didn’t slow down enough to enjoy it.
This idea of enough may bring up more questions than answers for you, and that’s ok. As John Dewey said, “ A problem well put is half solved.” What problems are you wanting to solve? What does enough look like for you?