Balance: Contentment and Ambition

Our lives are about change. More accurately, they are change. 

We are ever-changing, ever-evolving human beings. If you resist and fight the change, you're standing still while the rest of the world continues to surge ahead. But while you surge ahead with the world, it's equally as important to take stock of the process and find contentment as well.

Having grown up in a competitive atmosphere, my life was about ambition. If you weren't hauling butt, fighting tooth and nail to win and to be better, you were lazy. Because of this mentality, I formerly viewed contentment and ambition as two polar opposites. I felt that anything but "going for gold" was settling, resignation for just "okay." Accepting mediocrity. Accepting ordinary. It wasn't enough.

Learning that I could be enough AND more at the same time was a revelation that completely changed my perspective on life. 

Because here's the harsh reality that I came to intimately know after countless struggles and emotional maturation:

If what we have and who we are right now isn't enough, it will never be.

You'll keep climbing that staircase, telling yourself that once you reach the next step, you'll feel better about yourself. You'll be confident when you lose those last 10 pounds. You'll be happy once you have a 6-figure salary. You'll take care of yourself and appreciate your body when this chaotic time at work is over. Only then to realize that after you reached the step you thought was all you needed/wanted, you will feel the inevitable need to keep taking the next step, and the next. Looking ahead to the top of the staircase, casting your hopes at the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. 

So, how do you quench that "never-satisfied" feeling? It's a fine line, indeed.

Goals and ambition are necessary to propel ourselves forward. But finding satisfaction in gratitude and contentment in where you are and who you are RIGHT NOW is what gives you the tools to go for those ambitious goals with 100% of yourself.

Thriving. Cultivating. Embracing the work-in-progress, aka YOU, instead of obsessing about your mental forecast of the "end goal" or final product. Because more often than not, your life and who you are will look a lot different than what you originally imagined. While that can be an overwhelming thought at the lack of control, that is the beauty and excitement of life. It's the POSSIBILITIES.

So, I leave you with these two thoughts:

1. Until you can appreciate what you have, there will never be room for more. The key lies in the balance of contentment and ambition.

2. Never let the things you want make you forget the things you already have.