Be content to be content.
Posted on July 27, 2015 by Christine Bull, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
Is contentment a dirty word for you? Does it conjure up thoughts of giving up or putting on your slippers and settling down?
What do you think of when you hear the word ‘contentment’? I bet there’s many of you out there for whom certain words crop up such as:
Comfy
Given up
Stopped striving
Complacent
And those same people would rather run screaming for the hills than ‘just be content to…..’. Sound familiar? How many times have we heard in our lives someone say to us “well, if you’re content to just x,y,z….then so be it.” as a negative? Maybe you’ve even said it. There’s no wonder that we now have a slightly skewed view on the word contentment, we’re all about achievement right? I mean, isn’t that why I do my job as a life coach, to help people achieve and succeed? Of course it is, but what about when you have achieved or succeeded, what then? What will you do when you’re happy with something, will you even take a breath long enough to know you’re happy or successful? Often times not, and that’s a real shame because you deserve to be content for a moment.
‘For a moment’, you see what I did there? So come back from the hills all you Type A’s (and stop all that screaming while you’re at it), I’m not talking about putting on your slippers and robe for the rest of your life and retiring. I’m talking about taking a moment to acknowledge what you’ve achieved and enjoying that moment of pure contentment. What that contentment looks like is different for every person and could be a simple as feeling smug for a while, celebrating (as I discussed a few weeks ago here) or writing in your journal but most importantly it is about a real acknowledgement of what you’ve done and the place you are in as a result of that. It doesn’t have to be a permanent state, unless of course you’ve come to the end of a project, then feel free to be smug and content forever! Temporary contentment is just as important to give yourself a break, notice your achievement and realign yourself with any next steps.
So, now that contentment doesn’t sound so scary let’s have another look at what words might crop up:
Deserved
Happy
Successful
Satisfied
Joyous
And by the way, when you Google the word contentment it throws out “a state of happiness and satisfaction”. Sounds pretty good to me. So be content to be content!
Love your life,
Christine
