by Chris McGinty
We often hear that people who seemingly have it all are just as miserable and unfulfilled as those of us who have pretty much nothing. We could argue that it’s biological that in order for a species to survive it has to continue to want to thrive, even when needs are met. We could say that it’s chemical in that if you have clinical depression that there is nothing that will make you happy enough to break it. We could say that it’s based on success and you don’t want your greatest success to be in your past and the further in the past it gets the more it bothers you. Any of these reasons and more might be why those who have it all still feel like they want for something more.
When I work on long term projects, I rarely can plan much further than the next few steps. I use an iterative process where what I learned in the last round of productivity opens up my creative view of what should happen next. When I’m working on a long story, a couple of hours writing will have me thinking about the next scenes for the rest of the night. When Nathan and I play test games, I will find myself with one, two, three, scores of ideas by the next day.
I feel like life works a bit like this. The habit to create is to not to overcome all misery. People think that all their problems will go away if they become rich. They win the lottery. They file bankruptcy within five years. They were never truly happy in that time. This is why we hear of actors, authors, musicians, etc. who achieve success and are still unfulfilled as an artist. The habit is to have something new to thrive for than you did before. You should be working on a different part of a project today than yesterday. You should have a wholly new to do list this week than last week. You should have goals revised to reflect the progress of your projects this month that are different than last month. In many cases, you should have a whole new slate of projects from year to year or at least be in a new phase of a multi-year project.
It’s not so much about removing dissatisfaction fully from your life, but rather to not be dissatisfied with the same things for too long. Don’t keep your complaints and disappointments around like pets. Find gratitude in the good life has given you and solutions to the adversity it has thrown your way.
Chris McGinty is a blogger who has a headache. He is grateful for aspirin, and he is going to go take one and probably a nap.