For all of my adult life, I have been a “striving” person. For the most part, I still am. By striving, I mean being discontent with where I am and actively pursuing my next goal. Early in my career, I was striving to build a business and my career. As it has been with many of my peers in the creative and communication fields, the last several years have been spent striving to rebuild a career and a business.
But the coin of discontent, of striving, has two sides to it. The positive side of discontent is that it moves us out of complacency. The two motivations for change are (1) to move towards something that will lead to more pleasure and (2) to move away from a situation that is causing us pain. One or the other must prevail in order for us to divorce ourselves from our current habit.
The negative side of discontent is that, by definition, when we are discontent, we’re not happy. Because I’ve spent the bulk of my life in the mode of striving to become, I’ve seldom been “happy” with who I’ve been. I believed happiness was far over-rated. But not so much anymore.
I am coming to believe that happy people can be more productive people. Thoughtful, happy people are generally more focused on who they are and the process of what they’re doing. Strivers focus primarily on what they’ve not yet gotten done. When you are busy with striving, it is easy to confuse activity with accomplishment. It’s difficult to be happy when you are focused solely on your forward motion and never on the joy of your accomplishments along the way.
What’s your take on it?
Charles