Some Insight Into the Craving To Be Good Enough.... and Then Some
Whether it’s learning to crawl quickly when you’re just a baby, reciting the alphabet, winning trophies and awards, earning various higher degrees, making money, looking good, driving a nice car, etc…...the list goes on and on. Society provides endless ways to evaluate how you are progressing toward being a success….or not.
The idea of measuring, striving, and achieving is such a pillar of US culture that it’s not so much a question of if you’ve been impacted by these messages but rather to what extent do they determine how you spend your time and value the things you do?
Striving to make things better can be an excellent thing. Choosing a goal and working to make an improvement can make us feel motivated, empowered, and visibly show us the power we have to create the life we want. But the drive to improve can have a dark side. It can turn into a kind of craving that is never satiated for long. This is part of the reason that people who seem to “have it all” can still feel unhappy and dissatisfied. At some point a healthy dose of striving can turn into a kind of craving that is detrimental.
It can prevent us from ever being happy because we’re already looking for more once we’ve got what we want. It’s so easy to disregard the progress and immediately set your sights on the next step.
This habit of always craving progress and improvement can prevent us from enjoying what we have, seeing how far we have already come, and celebrating it along the way.
It takes some awareness and intentional effort to intervene on the craving for more, bigger, better. Learning how to be okay even though you’re working to make things better is a necessary skill to practice to have some inner peace. Practicing self-acceptance while striving for self-improvement can allow life to be better every step of the way. Being more accepting of where you currently are allows you to enjoy whatever may be enjoyable at the moment and be present for those around you while you are striving.
Turn off the strive instinct from time to time to check out what is happening right here and now in your life. It might be better than you think.
What if you are already good enough?
Whether it’s learning to crawl quickly when you’re just a baby, reciting the alphabet, winning trophies and awards, earning various higher degrees, making money, looking good, driving a nice car, etc…...the list goes on and on. Society provides endless ways to evaluate how you are progressing toward being a success….or not.
The idea of measuring, striving, and achieving is such a pillar of US culture that it’s not so much a question of if you’ve been impacted by these messages but rather to what extent do they determine how you spend your time and value the things you do?
Striving to make things better can be an excellent thing. Choosing a goal and working to make an improvement can make us feel motivated, empowered, and visibly show us the power we have to create the life we want. But the drive to improve can have a dark side. It can turn into a kind of craving that is never satiated for long. This is part of the reason that people who seem to “have it all” can still feel unhappy and dissatisfied. At some point a healthy dose of striving can turn into a kind of craving that is detrimental.
It can prevent us from ever being happy because we’re already looking for more once we’ve got what we want. It’s so easy to disregard the progress and immediately set your sights on the next step.
This habit of always craving progress and improvement can prevent us from enjoying what we have, seeing how far we have already come, and celebrating it along the way.
It takes some awareness and intentional effort to intervene on the craving for more, bigger, better. Learning how to be okay even though you’re working to make things better is a necessary skill to practice to have some inner peace. Practicing self-acceptance while striving for self-improvement can allow life to be better every step of the way. Being more accepting of where you currently are allows you to enjoy whatever may be enjoyable at the moment and be present for those around you while you are striving.
Turn off the strive instinct from time to time to check out what is happening right here and now in your life. It might be better than you think.
What if you are already good enough?