I’ve been thinking about contentment. All my life, I’ve been taught that contentment is a virtue — a trait worthy of developing.
The Bible teaches that we should learn to be content with whatever we have (Hebrews 13:5). Many great minds have written about the virtues of contentment.
“He is richest who is content with the least.” Socrates
“He is well paid that is well satisfied.” William Shakespeare
“He who is content can never be ruined.” Chinese Proverb
“He who wants little always have enough.” Johann Georg Zimmerman
I could go on, but I’d only be driving a nail with a sledgehammer. The world around me has said in a resounding voice: “BE CONTENT!” But is contentment everything its cracked up to be? How do I reconcile the desire to excel with the admonision to be content?
I’ve come to the conclusion that there are three options available to me at any point in time. The first, and easiest option is to be content without reflection. This is, however, a lazy answer to a complex problem. The slacker’s credo: Why try harder when this is good enough? The obvious flaw with this option is that it does not reflect our true nature. We are engineered — genetically wired — to be the best we can be. To be anything less is a formula for misery.
I don’t believe that this option is truly what the philosophers and teachers had in mind when they goaded us toward contentment. Otherwise we’d all be content with unhappy relationships, crummy jobs, substandard lifestyles and a world that sucks.
No, I think contentment is better expressed by the Serenity Prayer:
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
This is the second option. The key is the symbiotic relationship between accepting what we cannot change (contentment) and changing what we can! Contentment isn’t some mushy, half-assed excuse for accepting less that what we know we are capable of. On the contrary, contentment comes only after knowing that we’ve done what we can — all we can do, in fact.
The third option is a distortion of the second, and it’s seldom crystalline in appearance: overreaching and wanting more that we can have, or deserve.
So I’m to go for it and change what’s in my power to change. When will I know if I’m reaching too high? Should the fear of over-reaching paralyze me from ever trying?
There are many things in life that I could change. Many things that I am changing. And many more are beyond my control. This is the gray area. My vision of the possible future involves two variables; my effort (what I can control) and the influence of things beyond my control. So should I not have the vision? Should I not hope for and reach for things that I cannot completely control?
This past weekend I heard a quote by Roy D. Chapin Jr., former chairman and CEO of American Motors Corp. He said: “Luck is the time when preparation and opportunity meet.”
I’m not content with mediocrity. I’m preparing for the opportunity. When it comes, I’ll be ready — I’ll “get lucky.” If I don’t recognize the opportunity when it arrives, I must learn to accept the consequences with grace. And be content… until the next opportunity.
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