What does it mean to have "enough"?

Happy Sunday and thank you for opening this week’s #TheLifeofJLOWE newsletter! 

Have you ever heard the question “Is your glass half full or half empty?” Of course you have, we all have - it’s a cliche that you’re probably tired of hearing. Yet, still it holds a valuable lesson on perspective, and it’s something that I’ve revisited after my recent trip to Panama.

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Gratitude and appreciating things in life

Two weeks ago, I wrote about remembering music and appreciating the beauty of everyday things in life that we take for granted. 

It had a lot to do with essentially “waking up and smelling the roses” but one of the themes that it evoked for me, as usual, was gratitude. 

In my opinion, gratitude is the emotion/feeling that helps the most with developing a “glass half-full” perspective. That’s not controversial by any means, but I think Western society has conditioned us in many ways to want more and more things and to never be satisfied with what we have.

You just got a new car? Okay, what’s the next model you want to get in 10 years? Just bought a new pair of shoes? How about the new drop that comes out next week too? Or how about that thing that your friend has that you don’t need but you thought was cool? Yup, want that too!

If your glass is never half full, it can never be full all the way

This concept that I raised a few weeks ago of The Hedonic Treadmill - how we want more and better no matter what - is what stirs us to constantly want more. 

To give the same caveat I did weeks ago: that’s not always a bad thing.

However, if you can never appreciate that your glass is half full, you will never fill your glass all the way. 

What do I mean by that?

I mean that if you can’t be grateful for what you have now, you’re pouring into an infinite glass. You’re constantly going to be trying to fill your glass, only to realize that it can never be filled.

I think it’s so important to have a “glass half full” mentality, because it helps you to know when your glass is full. It allows you to control your limits of satisfaction, and to not live a life of excess. It allows you to have enough. 

Let me say that again.

It allows you to have enough.

So…what is enough?

Without the ability to self regulate and appreciate when your glass is half full, we become unable to appreciate or even fashion a concept of “enough”. 

“I need this.” “I need that.” “More of this, more of that.” “Just one more won’t hurt.”

Each person’s concept of “enough” is always an intentional and personal limit. Whether it’s a subconsciously set limit or a fully-consciously set limit, giving thought to your own internal concept of what constitutes “enough” will help you to understand and appreciate things as they are, while maintaining a realistic and reasonable idea of what more to want or pursue.

So, back to Panama - what was the lesson?

In Panama, we had the incredible privilege of touring with someone who could show us the luxuries of the country and the best of what Panama had to offer. But at the end of the day, you could tell that what mattered to him most was his family.

For me, I’ve had the privilege of getting to know families across the socio-economic spectrum, and I’ve realized that the pleasures and joys that they enjoy are the same. It’s the quality time with your relatives that no amount of money can buy. It’s the love that you can feel from hugging your relatives and the human emotions of being able to miss someone and find joy in re-connecting with them.

The thing that allows you to have a glass half-full is being able to appreciate the things that money can’t buy. It’s learning to appreciate the air that you breathe, the trees that you walk past or sit under, the love and emotions that you can experience and the people that you have in your life to experience it all with. 

The Wealthy Man and the Fisherman

If you ask a wealthy man what he appreciates most about his wealth, he will tell you that it allows him the freedom to do what he wants when he wants.

If you ask that same man what he then does with the freedom that his wealth allows him to have, he will tell you the same thing that a poor man would: spend time with and provide for his family and spend time in nature, work on something that he loves.

One of my friends at my old job shared this article with me, and I think it’s an incredible read on this exact sentiment. It’s called “What you can learn from a Mexican fisherman”.

Conclusion

And so this week my thought on perspective is this: is your glass half full? Does your glass even have to be at the half way mark for you to appreciate that there is something in it? 

What is your concept of “enough” and what are the things in life that really make you rich? 

As I said last week, happiness isn’t the mission, the mission is peace. So what brings you peace? Think about what brings you peace, and I’m sure you’ll find happiness somewhere along the way. Pursue what brings you total peace and I promise you, your glass will be half full, and you will begin to consider yourself “rich”.

Comparison is the thief of joy. 

Maybe you already have enough. And if you think you don’t, figure out what “enough” means and go after it. 

But be warned. You will watch as “enough” slowly resets and the bar gradually raises. And in that very moment, when you find that you have achieved the things that you set out to achieve years ago, check yourself and ask:

What can I pursue that won’t leave me longing for more once I get it? And then, then and only then - is when you will learn how to truly pursue peace.

Until next Sunday,

Justin