Why you don't appreciate what you have

Looks like fun doesn't it?

Why do we appreciate the good when we experience something shitty?

We take a lot of things for granted simply because we are preconditioned to notice any different.

When you have a good cup of coffee from your local cafe, than you try the Starbucks coffee, you think to yourself why did you even bother. When you are dating someone and you get dumped, you want them so much more. When you play golf at a really nice course and than go to a shitty course, well guess what you won't be going back to the shitty course, and all of the sudden you LOVE the old course so much more.

Notice here the emphasis on love. This is important because our conditioned mind turns the like into love after you have a negative experience with something new.

We get used to the things that are good to/for us.

Thinking about the mass population that has no clean water and barely any food when we are hungry or thirsty just doesn't happen. We neglect to realize this. Why?

Simply because we are more concerned about our needs over anyone else's. When pain strikes us, and I don't mean pain as in you fell down and you bruised your leg or you cut your finger slicing up vegetables for your soup.

I mean the pain that lets us know we are hungry, thirsty, or we are stressed. Yes this can be physical pain, your stomach will hurt and you might have a migraine.

All that matters at this point is you. No one else.

Do we take a hard look and always stay conscious at the fact that things can be so much worse for us? No.

Do I? No.

We become conditioned to luxury's. When this happens for us, these luxuries become necessities.

You just can't go without having your daily Starbucks coffee, or your daily newspaper. Yes it can be overbearing to miss out on caffeine, and of course you can't go on without reading about all the shitty things that are going on in the world.

So why do we take things for granted most of the time?

Because we want to be better than everyone else. There I said it. You want to have the nicest clothes, a car you can't afford, and live outside your means because you think that this will impress everyone.

But it doesn't have to be the battle of the titans. You don't need to have bigger and better things than your compadres.

We all just need enough. I have heard this before from my fellow friend who is a bariatric doctor and I do believe it, "There is enough resources in the world for everyone, they are allocated poorly, that's why more than half the population struggles.".

This is what inspired me to write this post. I got upset two days ago when I got a haircut from a new barber. What did I do about it? Well I mopped and had one shitty day. Was this necessary? Absolutely not. I should be thankful to have hair that grows back really quick. What did I learn from this? I shouldn't take my hairdresser for granted.

Take a real hard look at everything you have. I have said this before that experience triumphs over empathy. So thinking about something versus experiencing it is not the same. Yes when you experience something bad you immediately appreciate what you had prior to that experience.

The test is to not have to experience anything shitty. However if you don't experience anything shitty how will you ever know how good you really have it.

You can do things in moderation/occasionally and enjoy them so much more.

For more on why we need to stop taking things for granted read this article.

Really good quote that stood out for me from this article,

"Learn to appreciate what you have before time makes you appreciate what you had."

What you choose to do with this information is up to you.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

To be continued....

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