I’m glad to see I’m not the only person who has asked themselves this question on occasion.
Be grateful for what you have got and remember there are those much less fortunate than yourself.
I’ve taught out in South Africa before, close to the slums of Soweto where pverty and crime is rife… this makes me get annoyed with myself when I start being unhappy with how my life is going.
I often find myself thinking that there should be “more to life than this” when pulling myself out of bed on a Monday morning to go and deal with a bunch of ungrateful teenagers who can’t see the world outside of their blackberry’s and XBox’s (they are currently sat doing a test at the minute). I somehow think I am special and should have ended up rich and living in the alps riding my bike every day… but that’s not realistic is it, but for some reason I am dissapointed that my life isn’t like this.
I often have to remind myself that I have a stable job with a fairly decent income, I’m really really happy with the house I own, my wife’s amazing and I get to ride 13 weeks a year during school holidays. Ive got money for beer and steak and kashima coated bits and can pay what some foreign workers equivalent weeks wages for a shiny tube that says “Thomson” on it… so why should I ever be down? Why am I pissed off that I’ve lost a crown race so can’t fit my new forks yet? Why get annoyed that I’ve sat in traffic for 40 minutes this morning?
Truth is, in this country most of us don’t know what it’s like to have a shit life, even if you lose your job and fall on hard times the state helps to keep things ticking over. But for some reason most of us expect to have ended up being Alan Sugar and feel like something went wrong because we are not.
For most of us the only true pain we ever have to deal with is the death or long term suffering of a loved one.
So why are so many people not happy? I think it is the way our society makes us want more, it complicates life and most of us are always seeking material gain.
My life is great… but I don’t think I appreciate it enough…I think I need to have some kids next to feel like it has really gone well.
Paul