What If....

.......we were all lucky enough to have unlimited money, personal chefs and personal trainers, life coaches, personal stylists.............

Would we all be 100% happy, healthy, and look totally awesome?

Studies have shown that rich people are no happier than paraplegics.

This tells us you should just stop always wanting the next thing----I talked to someone today who had made a really small but huge change in the last week.....she went on a walk twice (compared to never in the past year). But when she told me about it, she said, "Oh and I did walk twice this week, which I guess was an improvement, but it was only twice and I really want to do it four times, and I should have just done it more but I didn't....but I'm going to because twice isn't enough."

Am I totally nuts, or is twice a significant improvement over zero? That's 200% improvement. She reached a goal, a milestone, and now she wants more instantly.

When you catch yourself doing this, or always looking for that next better thing, stop for a minute. Pat yourself on the back, do a jig, whatever you need to do to acknowledge that what you did was significant before you go reaching for something else. Take a moment to check and see if where you are right now is ok for now.

I am trying to break this habit myself---some call it being an overachiever or sometimes it's just about beating ourselves up, and maybe that's all a little bit true. How else would I have ended up in school long enough to get a PhD? It wasn't for fun! I start to see myself considering doing some other school thing, then I realize that I should really just stop---I can learn whatever I want to know on my own (and pay for what I've already done). I do this with apartments/houses, cars, yoga, food, everything---I like what I have/do, but I'm always trying to see if there's something better I could do or get. But if I just stop for a moment, I realize that I have everything I could possibly want (and I could probably give up some things and still be totally happy).

For your mental well-being, take a breath from acquiring once in a while, whether it's a thing or a condition or a habit. Goals are good, but don't forget to stop along the way and see and enjoy where you are right now.