Is Contentment the Answer?

It has been a great week this week with a Mental Resilience Masterclass delivered to an excellent senior team from Kreston Group on behalf of PDW. The energy in the room was high with great interaction and very positive feedback.
 
I also had two coaching sessions with two of my regular clients and these were very enjoyable and effective. One was face to face in Buxton which is a lovely part of the world, and the other was online in Ireland.
 
It gives me great joy to work with people and to see how some of the techniques and my philosophy can make a positive difference.
 
 
The carpet was dirty
 
There was also something else I organised which was equally important. I arranged to have my 98-year-old mothers lounge carpet cleaned. It required me being there to facilitate access and make a cup of tea. Sometimes personal things can be as important as work things and they need to be prioritised.
 
The carpet was dirty, and I searched online to find a good carpet cleaner. I found Nick from Go Fresh Carpet Cleaning and called him to ask him why I should use him over other carpet cleaners. He answered that he uses the Ferrari of cleaning machines and takes pride in his work and repeat business is key to success.
 
He didn’t knock the opposition in any way and was a similar price to another one I had found. So I decided to book him and here we were at my mum’s house. I made him a cuppa and less than an hour later the carpet looked amazing! I didn’t think it would be possible to achieve that result.
 
 
He changed career
 
When he had finished we had a chat and I discovered that he used to work at a reasonably high level for various large organisations for around 30 years and had decided to take a step away from the stress and pressure to start his own carpet cleaning business.
 
He told me that he had never been happier. He uses the best equipment available and ensures that every customer is delighted with the work. This results in repeat work and referrals which sustain his business. He receives great satisfaction from each job he completes.
 
Nick isn’t expecting to become a millionaire doing this of even make huge amounts of money, what he is after is a less stressed life where he is in control. The work life balance he has created is worth more than the money he used to make.
 
 
Contentment is the key
 
You can’t put a price on contentment. Contentment is different to happiness. You can’t be happy all the time, but you can be content in the good and in the bad. I have found this in my life and I am totally content with my life and I have been for several years.
 
I am very happily married to Julie, and we live in a simple house which is lovely but smaller than ones I have lived in before. We don’t have any debts and we have made the house a beautiful home. I have work which I love, and we both love just eating together, chatting and watching box sets.
 
We don’t need to be eating out all the time of going out to shows etc. We are content with the simple life we lead, and this is revolutionary for me. I used to strive to be very successful and rich. I wanted the big house the flash car the big position and the adulation.
 
I thought this is where happiness lies. I can promise you it doesn’t. When you get the big house, the flash car, the big position, and the adulation you get there and it’s not enough. You are still searching for something, so you keep going for more and you are never satisfied or happy.
 
 
You will be more peaceful
 
If you learn to be content with what you have you will live a more peaceful, less stressed life. People who are on minimum wage and just getting by can be content. There are tribes in the jungle who have nothing. They hunt for food, they cook the food, they dance and sing then go to bed and they are content with life.
 
 
It’s not about how much you have it’s about your perception of what you have.
 
 
Over the past 7 years I have learned the art of contentment. And I mean learned. I had to work on it. I had to be content with the smaller house we live in compared to the homes I had lived in previously. I had to be content with the porch which was falling apart and the drafty windows. I had to be content with the moss in the lawn and the cracks in the paving stones.
 
I had to be content with the debts I was paying off knowing I was doing the right thing and one day I would be debt free, but I was content throughout the process not just when I was debt free.
 
Nick is content to be running a successful little business. I don’t know his personal circumstances, but I do know he is content with his lot, and this brings in happiness and peace.
 
 
You don’t need to leave work
 
I am not advocating that you need to leave your job if you are stressed what I am advocating is learning how to be content with everything you have in your life. At least you have a job many people don’t have a job.  
 
There will be many negatives like my debt but if you can be content with the process you are going through whatever that is you will start to feel the emotions which contentment brings, and those emotions are unique and wonderful.
 
There seems to be a principle in life where if you are content with what you have you will receive more, or things will improve. This may be because contentment brings in huge positivity and when we are positive good things seem to happen.
 
 
Thoughts for the week 

1. How do you view the things which aren’t perfect in your life?
2. Are you just unhappy that things aren’t perfect?
3. This week think about contentment and see if you can start to be content with the things in your life which aren’t perfect.
4. We can’t reach perfection that is impossible, but we can achieve contentment and once we do we view everything differently.

 
Well that’s it for this week have a wonderful weekend and be content. 
 
Warm regards

John 

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