Unveil

Craving for greener grass

// October 24th, 2007 // Unveil

Ever felt that you have the worst of everything compared to others?  Does the food next to you looks and smells better than yours?  Do you think that your peers are having a more interesting job than yours?

We often feel that we do not live up to standards compared to anyone whom you think lives a better live than us.  We see others as an achievement, but never see the light in ourselves.  Consider the following scenario.

Your friend works for a big firm that pays him 3 times your earnings, has the best looking partner in the world, often visits the classiest restaurant in town ordering the most expensive food and changes car every year.

On the other hand, you earn a just right salary, have a not so hot partner, lives in a small apartment no larger than your office’s pantry, surviving solely on food cooked by your partner, and have a little extra left to bring your partner to the movies or to buy a little gift.

From the outlook of it, your friend’s life does make yours look pathetic doesn’t it?  Let’s take a closer look in both situations.  You feel that your job is boring and underpaid, but you leave sharp and do not work late and hence, have plenty of time to spend with whoever you wished to.  You have a not so hot partner, but he/she is your greatest companion who shares the same interest as you and the both of you seldom argue.  Home-cooked food might look dull, but it has been keeping you out of hunger.

As for your friend, he is drawing a very high salary, but at the same time, working 3 times more.  Having minimal time on hand to be spending with his/her partner, their relationships got rocky and arguments often burst out.  For him to be eating out most of the time, it is either because your friend has a partner who is either too lazy to cook, or too dumb to light a fire.  Your friend could be craving for a life like yours, as you gets to get off work early, and has someone who listens to your daily complaints.  You wouldn’t think that a pathetic life like yours is sought after by someone whom you thought to be having a perfect life.

The point here is, everyone have their good and bad sides.  It is true that we have to compare the good sides in them versus the bad side in us to shape us in to a better person, but we all need to see things from a different perspective before deciding what is good and what is bad.

In life, in whatever we do, we must not neglect the most important value in our aspect of life – contentment.  Only with contentment, our achievement can be valued, appreciated, and enjoyed by ourselves.  What is the point of everlasting war trying to achieve all that you want without feeling contented?  Let’s take an example of you, feeling pathetic because you feel that you are not rich enough.  How would you consider yourself rich?  Being listed as one of the top 10 richest tycoon on earth?  Having a total net worth that surpasses every single person on earth?  Or having a lifetime supply of endless money?  If you consider that totally defines rich, then you will be walking an endless road in achieving it.  You could however, take this on a different approach.  It doesn’t matter how much you have in order to be rich, because richness is defined as extras that you do not need.

Although it is never bad to go further in life to achieve the achievable, it would be great if accompanied by appreciation, valuation, and contentment.  Only with those, comes enjoyment and satisfaction in life.