Can we unlatch ourselves from a goal driven life? Why is it that we always seem to be working for more stuff? A better car, bigger house, a vacation home? Are we just wired that way, or it something we have learned and having learned it can we unlearn it?
I have seen this in my own life quite often. I will really want something, let’s say a sports car. I will work and save and beat down the objections of my long suffering wife and finally I get the thing. Now I don’t want to say for even minute that I don’t love and cherish my little car. But it somehow seems that the wanting was a much stronger emotion than the having. It’s sort of like, now what?
The answer is in there somewhere. The happiness of the little sports car was in the pursuit. I spent literally years seeking out the perfect for me car. I logged countless hours on the computer, learning about the type of car I wanted. I searched e-bay and other sites trying to find the perfect one in my price range. I must have looked at fifty or more of these cars in the area and even while on vacation. Wait honey, pull over- there’s one in that farmer’s field. It might run. Is that a tree growing out of the hood?
So if a material achievement leaves you happy for only a short while, why do we keep going after the next goal? Lately I have found myself looking at other sports cars. Wouldn’t it be great if I had a corvette? My long suffering wife just shakes her head and sighs.
Sometimes it seems like this is a sort of like being on a treadmill. I always wanted a house. I got a house. Now I want a bigger house. Or I want a house by a lake. But taking care of the house I have and making my mortgage payments makes the dream of that other house a real stretch. But maybe if we work and save and do without and make ourselves miserable in the process, maybe we can find that bigger house.
But when we get there, will the same thing happen again?
The best advice I have heard is choose your treadmills with care. You will be on them for a long time.
