Stuff, stuff, stuff. Tasks, tasks, tasks.
They fills our minds. They fill our days. They fill most people’s entire lives. But having more stuff and doing more things will never make you truly happy. Buying that shiny new _____ (fill in whatever you’ve been lusting after) might make you feel good today, but any happiness it provides will be fleeting. And though doing certainly trumps having, it too can only provide temporary happiness. You can’t buy or act your way out of unhappiness. True happiness is a state of being, not a consequence of owning more stuff or doing more tasks.
Now there’s nothing wrong with having nice things or good tools, planning out your day, or carefully managing a project. But it’s imperative to remember that no amount of having or doing will ever provide a sense of being. Not that this stops brands from trying to convince us otherwise, or stops our ego from believing them.
“The ego identifies with having, but its satisfaction in having is a relatively shallow and short-lived one. Concealed within it remains a deep-seated sense of dissatisfaction, of incompleteness, of ‘not enough’. ‘I don’t have enough yet,’ by which the ego really means, ‘I am not enough yet.’” ~Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
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