When Is ENOUGH, ENOUGH?

When Is ENOUGH, ENOUGH?

There are many situations in which one person specifies WHAT is ENOUGH for another person.  One person might decide he has had enough of something but it has to sink deep within us that everyone has different wants and needs.  And people are compelled to get WHAT their wants and needs tell them they must have.  For the more principled people, they will readily subscribe that 'AS LONG AS A PERSON HAS ENOUGH, THEY DON'T NEED MORE'.  BUT do those words translate into reality in real life?  Damn it, I'll be the first one to object because that's NOT and never happening.  WHY?  Because for each of us, we tend to move goal posts from time to time.  So,  When Is ENOUGH, ENOUGH???

Now, give us a fraction of a second to dream.  WOULDN'T it be great if all can agree to work on building an environment where everyone is ENOUGH?  Instead, we currently have these dire situations WHERE a big chunk of our population lives in poverty while a small number of people have more money than could possibly be spent even in several lifetimes.  It's the same case globally WHEREIN we produce enough food each year so that no one needs to be hungry BUT/YET, in some parts of the world, large quantities of food are wasted while in some parts, large number of people are chronically hungry💥💥💥

For me, the biggest issue [WHICH I doubt we can ever tackle, if at all] is WHO decides WHEN ENOUGH IS ENOUGH?  It will always be the case that WHAT is ENOUGH to one person could be an excess to another person and a shortage to someone else.  Oh Oh Oh, indeed life is akin to a Goldilocks game in WHICH we each have our own preferences for HOW warm OR cool our porridge should be.  WHEREAS Goldilocks knew WHAT was 'JUST RIGHT' for her✅✅✅

Ironically, it seems easiest to learn about our personal 'JUST RIGHT' states WHEN things are NOT right.  John might sip his Starbucks Americano he just ordered and instantly screw his face up and exclaim 'WHO PUT SUGAR?"  WHEREAS Jane might quickly grab the still 'HOT' french fries and then quickly reaches out for salt.  And so life goes on and on.  Sometimes, TOO hard, sometimes TOO soft, TOO rich, TOO poor, TOO fast, TOO slow, TOO black, TOO white, TOO fat, TOO skinny.  TOO active, TOO lazy, TOO busy, TOO bored and so on❗❗❗

Our takeaway:  Like it OR note, let's agree to this basic given.  THAT life is the very business of creating and maintaining the world we know in the "JUST RIGHT" states we want it to be in.  So, ENOUGH is just right.  BUT ENOUGH just CAN'T be stipulated OR mandated from outside, for the most part.  Because for the most part, there are many situations in which one person specifies WHAT is ENOUGH for another person.  YET, if someone decides HOW much is ENOUGH for someone else, that DOESN'T necessarily mean it will be ENOUGH for that person.  ENOUGH is always a personal experience.  ENOUGH is just right, seriously dude😌😌😌

When is Enough, Really Enough?

                                     When is enough, Really Enough?

💦This interrogative statement bothers me enough.  When is enough, really enough?  Really, this is a tough nut to crack because if you're talking to 10 folks around you, regardless within your household or with strangers out there, you'll get ten definitions of when is enough, really enough.  And once you compare those ten responses, you could be comparing night versus day, the skies versus the ground or even deep down into the dungeons.

For the most passive, laidback soul, you could here this as enough for him:  living life on a daily basis as long as he lives in his family's abode, as long as he's there with his parents who are living out of retirement.  That's all, he's fine to be a parasite, a dependent no less.  To this [hapless] soul, he's got a worry-free life?!#%

You would hear any of these retorts [a.k.a. excuses over and over].

OH, I'M PAST MY AGE, I CAN'T GO BACK TO SCHOOL.

OH, THE JOB MARKET PREFERS ONLY EARLY 20's.

OH, I'M A BLUE-COLLAR WORKER, I CAN'T AIM MORE

OH, THE JOB AD SAYS 4yrs EXPERIENCE, I GOT ONLY 2yrs

OH, ITS A LOCAL JOB.  I WANT AN OVERSEAS ONE.

OH, THE SALARY OFFER ISN'T ENOUGH.  NO WAY.

Cut the crap.  Stop chasing tails.  Any of your decisions in life becomes an INDECISION if either it is ineffectual or it does not lead to any progressive change in your status quo.  For a lot of us, we tend to set lofty goals but we don't align our self-motivation to a timeline that is R&R [reasonable and realistic]. While the digital world we now live does offer lots of instants [e.g. INSTApay, INSTANT e-Financial Aid], if you have to start with bread crumbs, take it for what it is, for what it's worth.  Take it as it becomes commensurate to what you are both capable and NOT capable for now.  Those angling for entry-level jobs should let this sink into the deepest recesses of their selves. Why go for the summit when you can't reach the Base Camp?

Two days ago, Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat was top banner news for U.S. sportswriters after signing a $163M contract to continue playing with the Miami Heat.  $163M is a very far cry from the $12,000 a year salary of her mom who single-handedly took care of him, living in a decrepit mobile home for eighteen years.  But Bam's mom was so focused on Bam's academic and basketball development going to High School, then aiming next for the big-time NCAA by looking for the best possible university and best possible basketball coach who can prepare Bam for his stratospheric 'takeoff' over to the real bigtime NBA.  These days, Bam's mom continues to shed tears when getting emotional, thinking the unthinkable, how their lives have gone this far.

What does these all tell us?  As long as you are still able to put the ball in the cup, when you come to work, have your hard hats on, give it your best shot.  You may be a dog out there but this cruel world has no place for LAZY dogs.  You gotta be a TOP DOG no less.  

If your life has been one of fumbling acts the past years, don't be harsh of yourself to hit the last nail on the coffin.  GET UP!  RISE UP! Look on your glass of water now as half-filled instead of half-empty.  Turn yourself into a bulldog with a chip on your shoulders.  The narrative is for you to write.  Change the narrative now.  Go from hard ball play to wrecking ball mode.  How?  Revisit things.  Re-plot your vision, your roadmap because the best in you are all there in your wheelhouse.  It's for your taking.

Take this from C.S. Lewis, a noted British writer at Cambridge and Oxford.  if you put a wall on yourself that you're to be angling for this goal or that next job, yours is a lost cause right then and there.  Instead, there is enormous opportunities out there.  Unfortunately, those are not left in the open [else the preying vultures will be on top of the totem pole to pounce on it].  You gotta unearth it and sometimes, those opportunities are obscured with lethal mines around it or even atop it.  You gotta figure out how to hit a homerun but rid yourself off of perverse priorities in life and even get misguided by a false sense of hope.  If your spirit seems flagging, resuscitate it.  If you need to be CPR'd, submit yourself to be CPR'd if only to get you back to life. 

You can still be that bird atop the peak, the zenith.  Indeed, reaching atop is a steep climb but such is life, you've got to earn your spurs, starting off from the trenches and stumbling multiple times because that hardens up up, that harnesses your potential.  

Going up Mount Everest is a classic.  Just reaching the Base Camp, you need to hurdle a 10-day trek no less [unless you get scathed [and that stalls you further].  Then you need to spend weeks just to acclimatize to the altitude and waiting for the route to the Everest summit to open only around May.  This is the way to go if your definition of success is to reach the top, the zenith [not just ending up in a cozy McDonalds and grabbing burger over the counter].  Unless you're a scion of the billionaires, unless you were born with a silver spoon, roll up your sleeves now.  

Look ahead.  Look afar. It's a long road before you deserve to grab a popcorn to sit back and enjoy the fruits of your [hard-earned] work🎉