Old Kowloon Club

Being Content

cowboat


What do you strive for?

What comes to mind when you think about what you want out of life?

Probably it’s some combination of those things.

I strive for these. They often occupy my thoughts. When I make decisions, I make them in the context of how they will affect my pursuit of these things. This isn’t a bad thing. After all, it’s good to have goals, and to have ambition.

However, I often find myself wanting these things — not just passively, as with goals, but actively. In a way that can make it difficult to relax. Sometimes I sit at home thinking about what I do not have and would like to have. Sometimes it keeps me up at night.

When this happens, I feel I am experiencing strife (which comes from the same root word as strive). It feels like a bitterness with reality. An acute discontent with how things are, in relation to how I want them to be.

Removing strife

I don’t want to be in a constant state of strife, though. When we are discontent with our situation, over time it can cause resentment. I want to be at peace with how things are, even if I wish they were different. I want to be grateful for what I do have, even if I want something else. Not just grateful for it, but happy with it — happy that I have it at all. I want to live in and enjoy this moment with those I love, not to be constantly thinking about the future. I owe that to myself, and to them.

I think that’s what contentment is. I don’t mean to be cheeky here; it’s a hard thing to understand, at least for me.

Contentment doesn’t mean complacency. I won’t lose my interest in the future. I won’t give up my passion and ambition. I just need to keep them in balance.