Years before serious illness forced me into early retirement, I’d begun a habit that now feels even more necessary:
I start and end every day by counting my blessings and being grateful for them. Even if they’re often the same things each day. Even if I’ve struggled with something or had an argument with a loved one or had to clean up a godawful mess. It’s okay. Each day I have a great deal to be thankful for, and reminding myself of that has helped me adjust to not only my forced retirement on a shoestring, but also that I don’t really need a whole lot more than what I have.
There has always been something dire, something that sucked, something that’s scary. As long as we humans live, there always will be. The key is to stop going all wide angle on every piece of information that crosses your mind.
Give yourself permission to decide which pieces matter the most. Put the rest aside. Let go of what you can’t fix. Focus on what you can make better. Embrace what’s in front of you and just live your life. One day you won’t be able to anymore.
Yeah it’s objectively better in basically all measurable dimensions.
But I think what people measure is where they are vs others. Wrongly but that’s the mindset. How great the others have it, is now evident daily on your feed.
We also had a lot more social glue in those old days: church, community, family. All that is less and less as years go by. I think objectively some of those institutions hid some serious problems, and are better today than say 50 years ago. But they provided meaning in large quantity; and that seems absent to many people today.
agree strongly w this. another aspect of church/synagogue etc. was that you fraternized across class. working class/middle class all sat in same rows, heard same message. esp. true before neighborhoods sprawled out and segmented out by income, but even then there was come class cross-pollination
I read every word of it! Thanks for the reminder to appreciate where we are and what we have. I pre-ordered the book in December with anticipated delivery date of April 28. Looking forward to reading it!
Thank you for this clarifying perspective. Sure, I can’t afford the house my dad bought on half my salary, but have you considered that I have access to Spotify? Nothing soothes the existential dread of paying $3,000 a month in rent for a house I’ll never own quite like unlimited streaming. Truly the great equalizer of our time.
Years before serious illness forced me into early retirement, I’d begun a habit that now feels even more necessary:
I start and end every day by counting my blessings and being grateful for them. Even if they’re often the same things each day. Even if I’ve struggled with something or had an argument with a loved one or had to clean up a godawful mess. It’s okay. Each day I have a great deal to be thankful for, and reminding myself of that has helped me adjust to not only my forced retirement on a shoestring, but also that I don’t really need a whole lot more than what I have.
There has always been something dire, something that sucked, something that’s scary. As long as we humans live, there always will be. The key is to stop going all wide angle on every piece of information that crosses your mind.
Give yourself permission to decide which pieces matter the most. Put the rest aside. Let go of what you can’t fix. Focus on what you can make better. Embrace what’s in front of you and just live your life. One day you won’t be able to anymore.
Yeah it’s objectively better in basically all measurable dimensions.
But I think what people measure is where they are vs others. Wrongly but that’s the mindset. How great the others have it, is now evident daily on your feed.
We also had a lot more social glue in those old days: church, community, family. All that is less and less as years go by. I think objectively some of those institutions hid some serious problems, and are better today than say 50 years ago. But they provided meaning in large quantity; and that seems absent to many people today.
agree strongly w this. another aspect of church/synagogue etc. was that you fraternized across class. working class/middle class all sat in same rows, heard same message. esp. true before neighborhoods sprawled out and segmented out by income, but even then there was come class cross-pollination
I read every word of it! Thanks for the reminder to appreciate where we are and what we have. I pre-ordered the book in December with anticipated delivery date of April 28. Looking forward to reading it!
thank you!
Personally, I blame Syler.
Thank you for this clarifying perspective. Sure, I can’t afford the house my dad bought on half my salary, but have you considered that I have access to Spotify? Nothing soothes the existential dread of paying $3,000 a month in rent for a house I’ll never own quite like unlimited streaming. Truly the great equalizer of our time.