My alarm goes off at 6:30AM, I roll out of bed after only getting 4 hours of sleep. I can barely open my eyes as the light peers through my windows, I feel like I am sleep walking on my way to the kitchen, walking into a room of pitch black darkness, hitting my toe on the sofa’s foot as I pass by heading to the sliding door to retract the curtains and bring some light into the room.
As I pull back the first sheet, once again my face is hit by the bright light coming from outside, I am right about now pulling one of those funny “flinch” faces as I move toward the other side of the room to open the other sheet.
I sit down on the sofa and switch on my TV. I flip the channels my way to the news and a story on Malnutrition is being rapped up on CNN. I immediately find myself trenched in guilt. Guilt pertaining to complaining about materialistic things…
“Why are we complaining about little things every day?” I thought to myself. We have so much, yet we believe we don’t have enough.
It’s a mental thing I believe and small mindedness and a poverty mentality plays a big role here too. It has us believe that we can’t be happy until we have (said thing, you choose your own) in our lives and that before we have our hands on that, we aren’t really making it in life. We worry about little things that don’t really even have an impact in our day to day lives, yet we sit quietly every minute of the day complaining about how we want this and that and this and that. It just don’t make sense does it?
Why complain where there are so many other people out there with nothing? We believe that everything revolves around ourselves and we sometimes forget how other people are struggling to provide food, clothing and shelter to their families. We have men and women who work 12+ hours a day to merely put a loaf of bread on their families table for the evening and do you see them complaining?
I don’t think so…They are happy with what they have. Their value lies within their family ties, the time they get to spend together as a unit. Why don’t we have the same view point in life?
I think it’s time that you made the switch. I challenge you to make the switch.
The Challenge
Live with what you have today for the next month. Don’t buy new clothes, toys, games, furniture etc, don’t grab Starbucks in the morning, don’t have dinner at restaurants. Switch off the TV. Challenge yourself to spend more time with your family and focus on what is important in life. Stop complaining about materialistic things and realize that there is more to life than wishing and wanting.
If you can, see if you can’t get involved with a nonprofit that is helping people with clothes, shoes, food, shelter and drinking water. Make some new friends by helping those in need. You will be surprised when you look at how much happiness it will bring you when you help someone who is struggling in need.
Good luck and I would love to hear your thoughts.
