The richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.
― Arab proverb
The older I get, the more I see that internal peace is found in wanting less.
What I used to think “making it was” #
I used to think that in order to “make it” I had to have six zeroes in the bank account, a home over 3500 square feet, and a $100,000+ car in the driveway.
But, that was never going to be enough!
With human behaviour, it is evident that no material wealth will suffice.
Add another zero, add 1000 square feet, add 50k to the car’s sticker price.
Maybe, just maybe, I’d be happy then!
This is a never-ending cycle, where we will always be comparing to someone that has more, wishing that was us.
The dirty secret is that there will always be someone with more.
The fact is that no person is happy when on this treadmill, it causes us to lose ourselves.
The things that we own begin to overwhelm and own us instead of aid us on the path of life.
I know that a younger me would be laughing at the Ned Flanders-esque character that I’ve become, but the truth is that this constant chasing of things is far more akin to slavery than freedom.
Most people live life this way without questioning it. They never wonder why they have no inner peace even though they live in a time and place that they have access to better food, shelter, everything, than humans at any time in history.
It is because they still want.
Actually making it #
Here is what actually making it looks like: Do you have money in the bank at the end of the month? And, month after month, are you finding a way to reduce the necessity of that money, so that you no longer need it to live? What if making it was reducing your need for money entirely, living on the renewable food sources you created, the relationships you built, and the fact that you want for nothing?
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Psalm 23:1–6
Do you owe not a single dime? Do you have all your needs met? Are you surrounded by people that you love? Are you focused on God above? Are you helping others?
Congratulations - you are making it.
When we start to reduce the “things” that we have in our lives, we start to realize that the amount we truly need is actually so little, so simple, and so much less than we previously thought.
Not only this, but excess is actually detrimental to our well-being. We are killing ourselves with excess in food, in entertainment, in the abundance of comfort, in the fact that we look around and see others with “more” and compare to that excess. That soft bed, that fast food, that television – they are slowly killing you.
I am at the point in my life where it is evident that homelessness or owning a mansion are two sides of the same coin, and that it needn’t matter what you own in reflecting the value that you have in this life. This is a deep contradiction to what the world says: strive for success, strive to have as many things as possible, strive to make money above all else, and then you will be happy.
Making it is wanting nothing.
And if everyone made it, society would completely crumble, the markets would tank, and the manufactured scarcity would cease.
But, until then, the best kept secret is that the happiest people want the least.
For they know that nothing can be taken with you. That where we are all going is not of the material, but of the spiritual.
Focus on that which matters.
It is most certainly not matter.