Written by joshua becker · 59 Comments
We live in a culture that is never satisfied and always desires more:
More money. More clothing. More toys. More square feet. More followers.
In fact, in many ways, the pursuit of more defines our entire society:
More power. More wealth. More prestige. More reputation. More sex. More. More. More
But there is a problem with the lifestyle choice of desiring more. When we constantly desire more, we are never satisfied. Because no matter how much we accumulate or achieve, more always exists.
By definition, it is unquenchable.
No matter how much money is in your bank account… there can always be more. No matter how big your house… there can always be more. No matter how many likes on your Instagram post or views on your Tik-Tok video… there can always be more.
When more is the goal, we never fully arrive. It is insatiable. And that is the problem with always wanting more. Happiness and contentment will always elude us if we are looking for it in the acquisition of more.
I suppose, if it was commonplace to see an end to this pursuit, that would be a different story. If human beings eventually arrived at a level of more, and suddenly became content, we could all strive to reach that magical level.
But that is not the example surrounding us. Quite the opposite in fact. Most everybody who acquires more, only continues to pursue it.
We see it in the lives of individuals who amass great fortunes but are not satisfied.
We see it in the world’s largest corporations who continue to pursue greater and greater market share and profits.
We see it in those who acquire power and then work relentlessly to keep it and expand upon it.
In the early 1900’s, John D. Rockefeller was the richest man in the world. He was once famously asked by a reporter, “How much money is enough money?” Rockefeller replied, “Just a little bit more.”
The richest man in the world, not satisfied, still in pursuit of more. More can never satisfy.
Other larger, less anecdotal studies, come to the same conclusion that even the wealthiest among us are never fully satisfied.
Of course, we don’t need to look at the lives of others to understand this phenomenon. One look in the mirror reveals the same motivation inside us.
The average American home has tripled in size in the last 50 years and continues to grow larger and larger. The average American woman owns 4X the amount of clothes as her grandmother, but continues to purchase. The average American home has 300,000 items inside it… and yet Amazon arrives on our doorstep several times each week.
When more is the goal, we will never find contentment. More is always a moving target. Never fully attainable.
We live life with only two options:
1. We can continue to pursue more. We can believe there is a better life waiting if we were just to acquire more money, more property, more fame.
2. We can reject the false notion that more is needed to discover happiness. And we can find contentment in our circ*mstances and gratitude for the blessings we already possess.
The choice is yours.
As for me, I’ll choose contentment with less.
