If you’re humming “Love the One You’re With,” you’re on the right track. Even if you are dating yourself a bit.
On a December work trip to London, I picked up Red magazine. I’d never read Red, but it appears to be a British version of Glamour or Elle.
Since the nice people at Hachette Filipacchi, which owns Red, apparently don’t believe in posting their content online, allow me to describe an article that caught my attention called “Love the life you’ve got,” by Tamara Sturtz.
Tamara starts out by saying she and her husband had difficulty getting pregnant and during IVF treatments, she swore she’d never want another thing in life if she could just get pregnant. Then she gets pregnant, and predictably, she forgets that completely and goes on wanting new things.
She talks to women who want a better house, newer technology, more shoes, even though they have so much to be grateful for. They’re always comparing themselves to some slightly better version of themselves they could be … if only …
She talks to several experts about our drive for more/better/different, including:
“If we set our sights on ‘things’ to make us happy, we’re always going to be pursuing happiness,” explains Ian Lynch, project manager of the Happiness Project and Success Intelligence. (happiness.co.uk). “We’re being bombarded with things we’re told we need all the time, and it fuels that insatiable desire to have more. The To Do and To Have list just keeps growing.”
Doesn’t advocating for loving the life you’ve got fly in the face of a blog all about transformation?
In a word: Nope.
I think the most powerful change one can make is to really, truly be grateful for all the blessings you already have. Not just on an abstract level. Think about it, pray about it. List the things you’re grateful for.
It can give you confidence to make a change you’ve been wanting, or put it in perspective. It might also get you off the more-more-more treadmill long enough to reflect on what you really want.
What are you grateful for? What makes you love the life you’ve got?
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