Anyone who has or who is currently working where I work, in the area in which I work, will tell agree with me when I tell you all that I work in the Twilight Zone. It isn’t everybody mind you, but a good number of the customers that I’ve dealt with since working there have me thoroughly convinced that there’s no way that we’ve all been sharing space and breathing air on the same planet for all these years. No Way.
They can be some of the most self absorbed, inconsiderate people you will ever have the displeasure of encountering, and just when you think you’ve seen/experienced it all, they surprise you. I won’t go on any tangent or rant, but let’s just say you wonder at times how they’ve managed to get by so long without someone socking them in the face.
And as I look out the store window at the countless Porsches, Ferraris, Bentleys, etc that pull in and out of the parking lot, my mind starts to venture into a question about American Society that I’m somewhat afraid to pursue an answer to.
It’s no secret that, In America, you are constantly taught the importance of self reliance. The basic ideal is that there may be some help along the way, but ultimately you alone are responsible for the quality and success of your life. The intentions may be good but ultimately within that style of thinking, there comes a potential problem: Who decides the “quality” and “success” of life?
What makes the problem even worse is that society itself subliminally seems to hint at what an acceptable successful life involves. Sure you may have been able to buy your own house but what kind of house is it? You may have been able to buy your own car but what kind of car is it? And while you question your decision making on your house and car purchases, there’s someone else who’s catching the bus and trying to pay the monthly rent in their apartment… I won’t even start on what constitutes as “poor” in America either.
The reason why I titled this post “No Ceilings” is because I feel like that’s one of the results of this American ideal. It can be so easy to get caught up in the idea that you need to be as successful as humanly possible that you forget to ever allow yourself to be content. We look at wealthy people who have multiple homes, multiple cars, the finest of everything and use that as our determining factor of success. I’m not saying that you have to be satisfied with the bare minimum, but at the same time, I think we should all have that stopping point within ourselves where we sit and say “OK I’ve made enough.”
Myself, for example, I definitely plan to become a millionaire in my lifetime, should I live long enough to see that goal come to fruition. In fact, I’d love to become a multimillionaire if I’m blessed with that opportunity. However I don’t see “becoming a millionaire” as my standard for being successful, if I made half a milli tomorrow, that’s still $499,500 more dollars than what I have to my name right now and would definitely seem like a success in MY own eyes since it’s MY life, if you get where I’m going with this…
As far as quality of life, I know we all like to think that there’s some invisible opponent out there that’s working twice as hard to achieve what we want to achieve, and that’s why we have to work harder, but at the same time there are people, actual people, that would love to have what we have already, so if you’re already living someone’s dream life, is it possible that you can enjoy that while you’re working towards your own dream?
At the end of the day, I think we should all remember that even though there’s technically no ceiling when it comes to the length of our successes, that it’s OK to place a roof on your own success and just maintain it. As for me, I won’t stop until I retire both my parents and set myself and future family up to live comfortably. Once I’ve made enough money to do both of those things efficiently, I’m not going to yearn for even greater “financial success” by the standards that society has placed on all of us. I plan to enjoy my accomplishments and in turn try to help others achieve and enjoy theirs. Don’t make yourself miserable trying to attain a “quality” of life that only a few are able to experience. Enjoy your accomplishments as they come.
