I’m not quite sure where our gluttonous need for “more” stems from.
Dictionary definitions for gluttony include: habitual greed, overconsumption, wolfishness, insatiability…
I believe somewhere, at some point, we learned that who we were and what we had was not enough.
Long before we knew it we’d embarked on this unending journey for the mystical “more.”
The truth is “more” is as attainable as catching the red-nose reindeer, tooth fairies and the all elusive unicorn.
Somewhere along the line our innocence was squashed and we were deceived into believing that once we’d attained “more” we’d be happy.
That’s sad. Because right now, right this very moment, each one of us has the ability to be happier than we’ve ever been if we’d just believe that we were happy.
One of the reasons we keep feeding the gluttonous monster of More is we’ve been programmed to look at the Joneses to measure our success.
At first the Joneses lived next door. Then we found them in numerous numbers at our workplace- then we discovered that they had multiplied at our church- Now we can’t go anywhere without bumping into this super happy, super rich, supper good looking, super influential, super annoying bunch!
We find that no matter how hard we try the Joneses are always upgrading, thus always ahead of us-
Deep inside we know that at the pace they’re going we’ll probably never catch up- but we try anyway…
Sometimes the Joneses don’t even have two pennies to rub together- but they have something we admire- something we think we lack in ourselves and that is enough to depress us no end- because Why oh why don’t we have what the Joneses have!
Sometimes the Joneses don’t even have it as amazing as we think they do.
Most times if we were to ask the Joneses about this “incredible” existence we perceive of them they’d probably have no idea what we were talking about- because (as we would soon find out) the Joneses are also on that same rat ring we’re on racing hard to satisfy cunning Mr More.
This insatiable need for more turns many a good heart terrible.
It lures us into behaving in ways that are questionable and sometimes damaging.
It’s interesting that gluttony is also described as wolfishness; For many times the insatiable need for more turns us into wolves: Cold and uncaring of anything or anyone but our own survival. It’s a dangerous place to be.
The only difference between happy people and unhappy people is that the former choose happiness.
Happy people know that joy is a choice. They know that it’s never attained by what we have or don’t have.
What we sadly don’t realise is that it’s far easier to choose to be happy than to keep running obstacle-fraught courses to gain something as elusive as “more”.
We each have the ability to be happy.
We’ve all been blessed with an incredible tenacity to overcome insane obstacles and come out winners.
It’s true that one powerful way to attain happiness is to be full of thanks- Thankful for where we are right now- thankful for who we are- thankful for what we have.
In fact most of us know that we have many things to be thankful for and yet absolutely take for granted.
Pursuing more is not bad in itself.
Healthy ambition is good.
When approached as it should be ambition allows us to fulfill our reason for being.
Just like food is not dangerous until we gorge on it day and night- More is only harmless when we feed it to become bigger than anything else in our lives.
Your life is great. The moment you see that is the moment you’ll finally start enjoying this great gift of life you’ve been given.
