Being Content

I'm working on a new resolution. I've left out the word 'year' because this might take me awhile. I'm working on being content. I've had to really put some thought into what that means. For me, it's a whole new idea.

I'm a salesperson through and through and if I've got something to sell, I will try. I've sold candy, nice little "dust me's", bedding, tabletop, sporting goods, advertising, shoes and clothes just for starters. The list is quite long as is the number of companies I've had the privledge to be associated with and work for. I'm always trying to figure out how to be better than before. How can I improve workflow? How can I do this job better than the person before me. I think about how to make where I'm working the best it can be. I've quit jobs, been fired and laid off. I've taken my passion and used it to the best of my ability, including when I was unemployed and looking for a job. I consider myself lucky to find the current position I hold given the current state of the ecomony, the unemployment situation and being unable to relocate. The other day somebody asked me how things were going and I said, I'm content. But then I wondered, am I really?

I had a discussion with one of my work collegues the other day, regarding being content and what society has determined as being successful. From early in our lives, society tells us to always keep reaching for the stars, improve, do more, and so on. So at what point do we decide we have done all we can do, and are content with where things stand? Retirement? I was recently told that I have a habit of always looking for the greener grass. And you know, I do. After a lifetime of being taught to never settle, always strive for being the best, I work hard to be the best at whatever I've set out to do. Once I've met that goal, I begin to wonder what the next goal in life should be.

So I'm working at being content. Content in the security of my job. Content with my house, my car, my yard, my place in society. Content to watch my children grow and mature into adults. Content to not live my life through them. I will keep you posted on this resolution.