One way to live a great life is to understand and embrace the concept of enough. Like the story of the dog in the manger who growled at the livestock attempting to eat, by taking more than you need or can responsibly use, you hoard the blessings of life in such a way that neither you nor anyone else can enjoy them. We all have the right to a sound and pleasant shelter, to adequate and comfortable clothing, to meaningful and sustainable work and to healthy quantities of tasty and lovingly-prepared food. But none of us, however privileged, have the right to keep these things from another by virtue of our own gluttony – our inability to push away from the table of life after a moderate and enjoyable repast.
Ironically, this is the one thing that most of us agree on, but yet the one thing that we seem incapable of doing. We treat our bodies badly, eating foods that impoverish both ourselves and the very lands they raised on, then demand expensive relief and repair when either of these systems fail. We accumulate so many possessions that we are forced into debt and wage slavery just to maintain them, let alone continue the process. We actively seek new items to purchase and encourage blindly expanding productivity, not because we need these things (many never leave the original package on their predictable journey from coveted purchase to yard sale discard) but because buying them makes us feel as if we are treating ourselves, keeping up with the Joneses or providing security and benefits for ourselves and our families.
We cannot continue to live like this, and those who seek lives of greatness recognize the freedom and power of simplification. There’s simply too much energy frittered away in affording, buying, cleaning up after and maintaining such a lifestyle to have any left over for greatness, and so the truly great pare down to just what they need and love, and not a drop more – unclogging the arteries of their life to allow their divine energy to flow through more smoothly.
Do you know how to stop at enough? Can you even imagine doing so – turning against all the social and personal incentives to buy, to accumulate and to engage in the drive for more? Look around you – what do you see that you could live without? Just think of how much cleaning, debt worries, maintenance and annoyance could you eliminate from your life by simply exclaiming “Enough! No more!” Enough, perhaps to let greatness creep in where excess falls away.
(c) Soni Pitts
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
She is the author of the free e-book “50 Ways To Reach Your Goals” and over 100 self-help and inspirational articles, as well as other products and resources designed to facilitate this process of personal growth and spiritual development.