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Growing up, we were taught to attach our emotional well-being to the perpetual acquisition of stuff and status.
It is ingrained in us that ONLY when you get the thing (a good grade, a nice job, a new phone, a flashy car) THEN you are allowed to feel good…for a little bit.
But since there will ALWAYS be more to have and higher to climb on the status-ladder, we exist in a never-ending state of emotional incompleteness.
And like a bucket with a hole in the bottom, our life becomes the exhausting journey of trying to fill our sense of lack with the acquisition of more stuff.
As a society, our access to and our consumption of ‘stuff’ is at an all-time high.
Yet anxiety, frustration, and depression are more prevalent than ever as the dopamine hits from buying and consuming the next thing wears off.
So you can either continue to play this game until you’re really old and then look back and see how backward you had it…
Or you can decide to lean into some Universal truths that have been dictating reality long before you needed a Motorola Razr to be cool.
1. Only we have the power to choose how we think and feel, so we don’t have to wait until we have more stuff to feel good about ourselves
2. We are limitless creators with deep levels of strength, passion, and potential.
3. We already matter. Stuff and status are great and add variety to life but they don’t dictate our worth as humans.
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Previously published on Facebook.
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Photo provided by the author.