It’s a very frequent saying and also has been stated in many books and it’s even the very basic thing many public motivational speakers preach, ” Appreciate what you have in order to achieve real happiness and peace of mind”. And it leaves us with so many unanswered questions and doubts in our minds. Let’s unlock them.
If you are scanning through this post, I am certainly presuming few things about you:-
- You surely have a cell phone or might even a laptop or any other gadget.
- You surely have an Internet connection, which is letting you be an integral part of this worldwide web and connecting to my blog and reading this.
- There are very few things which are complementary in life, so obviously you are spending some amount to recharge for your Internet service. So, I am assuming that at least a minimum of 100 * per month you are spending on it. Some of you might be paying even a lot more.
- For sure, you are not spending all your money solely just on Internet connection, so I am considering you have some amount of money to spend on your daily needs too. Some might be lucky enough to spend on their “velli” needs too.
- Certainly, you have an electricity connection. Or else how would you have been charging your devices. As “Charge once, use forever ” technology is yet to be invented.
- The government still doesn’t provide electricity connection on Streets. So, I am assuming you have a shelter also or at least a place to live in.
- Surely, food is not your worry, if had it been your concern, you wouldn’t be reading this with so ease.
These are some very basic assumptions I made about the people who are reading this right now. Let me clarify again, these are just the basics, some of you, in fact, many of you have much more than the above-mentioned things and other comforts.
Let me tell you few facts gathered by me via some sources and organizations
1. A fact says that “Nearly 1/2 of the world’s population — more than 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day. More than 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty — less than $1.25 a day.” (source link below)
Even less than the amount you are spending just on keeping your Internet connection alive.
2. According to a report, 80% of the world population lives on less than $10 a day. (source link below)
And I’m sure you are in the rest 20%, congrats.
3. 1 billion children worldwide are living in poverty. According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death. (source link below)
Yes, I know most of you had fancy toys and yummy burgers and French fries in your childhood. My father gifted me a video game when I was 5, I remember. Lucky us, isn’t it?
4. More than 750 million people lack adequate access to clean drinking water. Diarrhea caused by inadequate drinking water, sanitation, and hand hygiene kills an estimated 842,000 people every year globally or approximately 2,300 people per day. (source link below)
Thanks to god, next time when a waiter asks you ” Sir, regular or mineral ” and you say it proudly “Mineral please”.
5. 1/4 of all humans live without electricity — approximately 1.6 billion people.
Look around and imagine, how your life would have been without it?
6. 9 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. Infectious diseases continue to blight the lives of the poor across the world. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with 3 million deaths in 2004. Every year there are 350–500 million cases of malaria, with 1 million fatalities: Africa accounts for 90 percent of malarial deaths and African children account for over 80 percent of malaria. (source link below)
Oh! Did you get cold and flu and you are worried? Get well soon.
Some people have everything but still, they look for more things and worry that they are not able to get them. Like for example, a couple earning good trying to save more tax by trying to file tax by married filing jointly or married filing separately. Even though there won’t be that much difference between them both, still they end up spending more time analyzing it instead of spending their time happily on the things that give real happiness.
So you still don’t appreciate what you have?
How many times you have heard yourself complaining about things or even saying “I wish if I had that car or that mobile or even that girl etc.”
How daily complaining is ruining your life?
Or, If only I had that thing, my life would have been different.
Of course, many times. Why?
Because we have programmed our mind that way. We are never satisfied with what we already have.
We always have an urge to have more or different. Whether it be our job, or bigger home, or even more friends blah blah…
We attach the meaning and worth of our life with materialistic greed and wanting or other cravings. 90% of us feel, if only we have that thing, we will be much happier.
I’m not at all saying that dreaming or craving for something is bad and if I say so, I will be contradicting my own statement of “dream big”.
All I am saying is don’t attach your happiness and satisfaction with the wrong definition. They can surely provide you with a sense of achievement, but they are baseless factors to define happiness and satisfaction.
Trust me, mental satisfaction can never be attained if we don’t learn to be satisfied and to be happy if we don’t appreciate what we have. You need to learn to appreciate what you have and make peace with it.
We always keep lusting about things that we don’t have and get depressed if we don’t get them. And, once we get it, we put our lust on the next big thing. See, it’s an eternal process. Either you can keep chasing things you don’t have all your life or you can start appreciating and realize the value of what you have. The choice is yours.
“Stop desiring of big car, while sitting in your small car. You still have more than that barefoot guy who just passed by”
We all are so busy yearning for lots of things, that we often forget to appreciate what we have.
You have so much to be grateful for as I told you with the facts above.
I want you to make a list of 5 things you are grateful for. Get your pen and paper and write down, and read it first thing in the morning. Make it a habit.
About a guy I admire:-
I am sure you have heard about Nick Vujacic. Those who didn’t, Check here.
He calls himself a “Guy without limbs”. He had born without hands and legs. I read his book ” Life Without Limits” and I was so enlightened by his life story. He never complains about his life or physical disability. Neither he does pity himself. He just appreciates what he has. He put his mind and time on things he can achieve and learn rather than focusing on his shortcomings.
Even without hands and legs that guy can swim n” surf and can do various stuff which even able persons still dream of. If he had focused on what he doesn’t have, he wouldn’t be playing the source of inspiration to many of us.
Start doing these things:-
1. Stop comparing yourself with others. We all are on a different journey.
“Stop thinking you’re doing it all wrong. Your path doesn’t look like anybody else’s because it can’t, it shouldn’t, and it won’t.” ― Eleanor Brownn
2. Realize your self-worth. Appreciate yourself for what you have achieved and what you have come through.
“Instead of searching for what you do not have, find out what it is that you have never lost.”
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
3. Appreciate your friendship and family. Not everyone has them.
“You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time, you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you.” Frederick Buechner
4. Never forget to feel gratitude for every small big thing you have in your life. Appreciate while you have it and before it gets too late
“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.” Eckhart Tolle
5. Never fell short of appreciation for others, if you feel that someone deserves an appreciation for his work or deeds. Appreciate them. We should always appreciate a good man.
“Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”
― Voltaire
6. Never miss the chance to express your feeling and to tell the people who matter, that how much they mean to you.
Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.
William Arthur Ward
7. Stop searching for happiness in materialistic things. At the end of the day, they are just material, not more than that. Better you realize it early.
“Only those who seek within, get to discover their true unconditional happiness.”
― Edmond Mbiaka
8. Always be grateful to god for everything he has provided you in life.
“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough”
― Oprah Winfrey
And still, if you feel you don’t have enough reasons to appreciate what you have and you feel your life could have been better, then here is the death rate chart from all over the world (dated 5.03.2017), You can analyze real-time data. at Chartbin
And if by the grace of divine power you are alive and reading this post, be thankful to God that you are not one of them who just left. Be grateful to God that he feels you are still worth being alive. Appreciate your life.
Time never stops for anyone and it better for you to realize to appreciate what you have before it gets too late.
Amazing job ?