Value things while you have them

Flaws in happiness

Why do we need to lose things to realize their worth?

If you’re looking for an answer I haven’t got one..try as I might I can’t make sense of this tendency of ours to be so negligent of good things and yet fixate on the issues that befall our lives.

I find it difficult to believe that when we finally get the happiness that we seek throughout our lives, we manage to find flaws in it too. How is it that it’s so easy for us to be indifferent toward something that was once so important to us?

When we want something really badly, it seems to be all we can think about. We decide in our heads “If I get this, then I’ll be really happy once and for all.” That’s never actually the case, is it though? Because when we see this thing that we so strongly desire up close, all of a sudden the ‘diamond’ looks like a mere piece of polished coal.

Being grateful

We spend our whole lives seeking something better, and for a fact, we’ll never run out of things that we think are better than what we have. So is being content in life truly achievable? I don’t know if being content with life is possible. In fact, ambition too, arises from this dissatisfaction. Yet when we completely lose sight of gratitude for what we have, ambition can quickly turn into constant disappointment.

Frankly speaking, it’s really hard to feel grateful for things proactively. The issues of life will always seem to outweigh things to be grateful for because they actively remind us of their existence.

So when do we realize the true value of something? We can only value something truly when we don’t have it anymore. In my opinion, we are often motivated to put in effort towards something that we want, but when we gain it we stop putting effort together. When we stop acknowledging its importance to us, we stop valuing having this thing completely. We only understand its contribution to our lives when we have lost it.

Conclusion

So yes, being grateful all the time isn’t possible, but we need to nourish the importance of some things in our lives. But even with this mindset, we can not avoid our tendency of having to lose things to realise their worth.

As I said earlier, I don’t have an answer to the question. But I do know that these tendencies and flaws aren’t built into anyone and can always be altered if we just ask the right questions. It’s important to think about where we may be faltering and use our need to do better for our benefit. Happiness is not perfect, and it never will be, perhaps perfection itself is a flawed concept. Should we be grateful for what we have, the flaws in happiness won’t change, but they will stop having an effect on our lives