Tag: consumption

Better

Posted on by philipdodson

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Better is all a question of perspective.

We live in a world where faster, cheaper and especially bigger are often the measures of better. That’s better the drink is 50% bigger and still the same price is often the mentality.

Better has been the myth sold to us by the industrialised system to get us to buy into more consumption and be compliant. Dissatisfaction and discontentment are powerful forces to ensure we all continue to strive to be ‘better’ or get ‘better’ stuff.

Why is a bigger number of something better than a smaller number? Why is a bigger house or car better than a smaller one? What is better for? Does anyone question that? Why do we have to be better? Perhaps we could redefine better.

Maybe the answer isn’t to always be striving for better, as in bigger, more of something, cheaper, faster, more efficient. Perhaps contentment with what we have and appreciating it and living a life centred on people and activity, not a life centred on striving for better.

Perhaps better is smaller, slower and good value. Perhaps better could be centred on how we treat ourselves and others. Not on better grades as a measure of success and worth.

Having your cake and eating it

Posted on by philipdodson

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Rather than getting off the fence, we all too often want our ‘cake and eat it’.

Simply put we want the best of both worlds, we don’t want to feel like we’re missing out on something. So we try hard to achieve too many things all at once, hoping that we can have everything all at the same time.

The thing is, you can have your ‘cake and eat it’ if you focus on what you already have. Most of us already have all that we need in life, yet we expend a huge amount of energy on trying to get things we don’t have or actually don’t need.

What we need, is not more money or possessions, it’s belonging, love, kindness, to feel worthy, people, friends, family and memories of activities we did with the people who matter.

If you realise you will always have the ‘cake’ every day, it’s there because you are choosing happiness and contentment with what you have.

Then you can ‘eat’ and the next day it will be replenished by your mindset, there will be another ‘cake’. We can create all the ‘cakes’ we need. We just need to accept that, be content and enjoy what we have.

Discontent is the tool of the industrialised system to lead us to constantly want more, it is how we feel we are able to reach contentment and happiness. Keep getting more and more. It’s a myth.

Happiness and acceptance of what we have are the perfect antidotes to discontent and feeling inadequate.

We only want the best of both worlds when we are striving for things we don’t have and actually don’t need.

Accept what you have and be happy.