Discontent puts you in a frame of mind that buries you in a sea of despair and hinders your progress on your Debt Relief Journey. Contentment, on the other hand, lifts your head above your circumstances and fills you with hope for the future. A future in which you can be debt free. Learn more in this week’s blog.
At first blush it may seem like contentment runs counter to ambition. After all, if we’re content with the status quo, why would we change it? But there’s more to it than that. In fact, it’s actually discontent that derails ambition.
What Is Contentment?
Contentment is an emotional state of well-being. It’s a confidence that all is well. Contentment seeks to extract and appreciate everything that’s good in any situation. We experience peace when we are content. Contentment is a joyful resolve to appreciate our current circumstances.
Why Discontent Derails Ambition
1. You spoil what you have by languishing after what you don’t have. If you can’t learn to enjoy what you currently have, the irony is that you’ll never be satisfied. You’re looking for happiness and fulfillment in the wrong place. If you’re always striving for more and more in order to be happy, when will enough be enough? Discontent turns ambition into something dirty.
2. Discontent fosters self-focus and a woe-is-me attitude. When life becomes all about you, life becomes very shallow. You grow introspective and narcissistic. This grossly limits your outlook and ability to see and grasp future opportunities.
3. You mope, complain and stoop to negative self-talk. Complaining and whining only serves to preserve your current miserable state. By rehearsing it and broadcasting it you inadvertently give it power. It now owns you, and you become weak to overcome it.
4. Discontent makes you difficult to live with. No one likes being around a nay-sayer. People—even your friends—find you boring and unpleasant to be around. Lack of outside input and camaraderie makes it difficult for you to improve and break out of this vicious cycle.
5. When you’re discontented, you are unthankful and ungrateful. These unappreciative attitudes breed more discontent and negativity. No progress forward springs from such a dour, sour existence!
For all those reasons and more, discontent hamstrings, derails and undermines ambition and progress, getting you nowhere fast!
Setting the Record Straight
So, let’s set the record straight about contentment. First, erase the image of the proverbial “contented cow” from your mind. That motionless cow standing in a pasture chewing its cud is not the condition you’re after! That’s not the brand of contentment that I’m talking about. It’s the wrong image. True contentment is not passive and motionless.
Instead, contentment puts you in a frame of mind to extract and enjoy all that’s good in your current situation. This frees you to see and pursue new and exciting possibilities. Contentment fills you with positive attitudes about life and people. Others see your contentment and are drawn to you. They want what you have.
Stop complaining about the sacrifices you have to make to get free of debt! Instead enjoy the world around you as you strive to improve your finances. Discover today how contentment is ambition’s closest friend.
How to Cultivate Contentment
1. Look for the positive in every situation. I’m not suggesting that you trick yourself into believing all is well when you’re experiencing genuine calamity and sorrow. But there’s both a noble and ignoble way to experience grief. Choose the noble path.
2. Express thanksgiving and gratitude often. In a poem, Helen Keller, who was born both blind and deaf, wrote, “I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.” There’s always something to be grateful for. Be generous in giving thanks and appreciate what you have.
3. Speak and act positively. A confident, joyful attitude puts you in a place to both enjoy your current situation and to discover ways to improve your circumstances and those of others around you.
4. Enjoy what you have. Spend time with your loved ones. Enjoy others and the moment. Right now today.
If you want to give ambition a leg up in your life, seek contentment. Practice the skills above to cultivate contentment in your life, and ambition, progress and more good things will soon come your way. You will find it much easier to make progress on your Debt Relief Journey and the people around you will enjoy your journey, too!
One of the best ways to focus your attention on the positive aspects of your Debt Relief Journey is to make sure you have all the tools you need for your journey. Take my free debt relief workshop to make sure that you do!
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Anything you tolerate becomes normal to you. When you stop tolerating debt, you increase your ability to function without it. It will take you some time, but the end is worth it!
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God Bless your week!