Contented vs Driven

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This post is a follow-up from a post I wrote earlier this week about the Happy Fisherman. Many thanks to everyone who commented and contributed to this discussion!

Contented vs Driven

It seems that many of us in the blogging world have been thinking on the same lines this past week. Two of the blogs I regularly read had posts with the same basic topic, dealing with being content versus striving and how and why to achieve that balance.

Faith at Minimalist at Home - Contentment, Resentment and Yearning for More

Francine at Miss Minimalist - Without All This Ado 

After reading their posts and reading the wonderful comments left by readers, I have come to a few conclusions.

• I am not sure that we will ever have this all figured out!
• Each person has to find their own place of contentedness.
• It seems to be a constant journey for most, an ongoing vigil to keep ourselves balanced between striving and contentment.

I think that Stacey from Midwife for Your Life made a profound statement:

It (this post) illustrates well the point you make that you do not need to make a lot of money to live a rich life, you just need meaningful and satisfying work.

Mandi from Life Your Way also made a good statement:

I think you CAN be content and striving, if you’re content in the striving. So, for example, building a business makes me happy. I’m not working hard to get to Place Y where suddenly I’ll be happy. I’m working hard because I love what I do and hard work is what makes it possible for me to do what I do.

Loving what you do seems to be a key factor here. I know that my husband gives me a bit of a hard time because I spend quite a bit of time writing, working on my blog, interacting via Twitter and Facebook. He says I traded out one overloaded job for another (and this one doesn’t even make much money yet!).

The key though, is that I love what I am doing. I love to write and reach out and help others. I am putting together some other options for helping people even more and the thought of it is exciting, even though it will mean a lot of hard work.

Tanja from Minimalist Packrat  stated:

“what a balance to achieve, between striving towards dreams and enjoying the present moment.”

I think this is a big key factor as well. We have a goal, something we are working towards, yet we should strive to live in and enjoy the moment we are in.

Is it possible?

So, CAN we be contented while striving? I think it is possible but I think it may take more effort on some of our parts, simply because we tend to be more driven.

Maxine from Miss Minimalist says:

In our winner-take-all society, we’re conditioned to keep striving, and striving, and striving for more. But where does more end? What exactly are we striving for? Is it possible to have everything—and if so, what happens then?

I have nothing against reaching for the stars, except when it blinds us to what’s in our grasp. If we re-focus, we may see that contentment, happiness, and fulfillment are sitting right in front of us, there for the taking.

May we all learn to reach for the stars but to also enjoy the meadow where we are sitting right now…

If you have enjoyed this conversation, please chime in your comments below!

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