Inspirational discontent
THIS article is reprinted from chapter 26 of my book, My Dearest Children. One key to happiness is contentment.?It is also rightly said that if you compare yourself, your business, or your career with others, you will either be proud or discontented.
Thus, should businesses stop benchmarking? Should we do away with competitions, talent searches, rankings in board exams, credit ratings, bank stability rankings, quiz bees, the Olympics, and the like?
The answer is in the phrase “inspirational discontentment” !
Man has been “programmed” to think that No. 1 is always the best position. In fact, it is so true that seldom do we remember who the silver medalist was, the second placer in the race, the second placer in the bar examinations, or the class salutatorian!
We remember the gold medalist, the first placer, and the class valedictorian!
Trying to be inspirationally discontent is a tricky thing. Only if you allow discontentment to inspire you, rather than to cause you to be envious, could it be termed a healthy type of discontentment. Be content! Or inspirationally discontent! There is a big difference between being discontented, and being inspirationally discontent! Know the difference! My Dearest Children,? If comparing yourself, your career, or your businesses with others doing better, INSPIRES you to do a better job, and brings out the best in you, fine! That is INSPIRATIONAL DISCONTENT.
You may and should benchmark your performance against others to see where you stand, to find out if you have reached your potential. But let not your ranking?or your rating bother you, if you have given your best. Pride, dissatisfaction, frustration, and even self-inflicted depression will be the fruit of perennial comparison or envy.
If comparing makes you envious and lose sleep, then simply focus on yourself, how you are doing, and how you perform against your own goals and your own capabilities, limited by your available resources.
What matters is that you are achieving your potential If you are, be content!?
Be happy!