Earlier this year, a Day One prompt asked a really good question:
What positive emotion do you feel most often?
My normal emotional state is contentment. Contentment doesn’t mean that I have everything I want. Contentment doesn’t mean everything is going well in my life. Contentment is not dependent on the circumstances.
Daniel Cordaro asked, What if you pursued contentment rather than happiness? Cordaro quoted Dr. Dorji Wangchuk, who said that contentment is “the highest achievement of human well-being.”
Cordaro shared the origin of the word contentment.
The root of the word contentment comes from the Latin contentus, which means “held together” or “intact, whole.”
Contentus asks the question, “How whole do you feel inside? How complete are you as a human being?”
Daniel Cordaro
Cordaro and his team concluded that human beings use two strategies to achieve well-being – what they called a More Strategy and an Enough Strategy. The More Strategy is used by people who try to achieve happiness by getting more of something external – more money, more stuff, more recognition, etc.
King Solomon would surely have agreed that the “more strategy” is pointless. In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon, a man of great wisdom, concluded that striving for wealth and achievement is meaningless, like chasing after the wind.
I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labor,
and this was the reward for all my toil.
Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 (NIV)
People who find the source of well-being within themselves practice the Enough Strategy. Their lives have value regardless of wealth, social status, or achievement.
To be content means you have enough, regardless of what is going on around you. Contentment means being satisfied with your lot in life.
To be content regardless of circumstances, I process all the emotions I experience – good or bad – and find the strength within myself to manage them. Circumstances may get me down, but I can’t stay down. I change the circumstances if I can. I adjust my expectations. I practice gratitude. I never give up hope.
My source of well-being isn’t just within myself; I believe in a higher power. God has promised to work things out for the good of those who love him. I put my trust in him.
The Apostle Paul understood the “enough strategy.” He was beaten and imprisoned for spreading the gospel, yet learned to be content.
I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
Philippians 4:11-12
I have been through some trials this year. I expect the next few years to be difficult. Even so, it is well with my soul. I am holding myself together. I have much to be thankful for. I have hope.
Innermost Being 