When can we say – Enough! What does sufficiency have to do with anything?
My feeling about the modern world is that it is never enough – there is always more. In the world we live in there is a finiteness of resources, and this finiteness inevitably leads to competition, and inasmuch as this is a way of evolving and outdoing oneself, I ask myself, Is it necessary to outdo oneself?
When I look at the accomplishments of others, am I able to connect to my own successes and needs because sufficiency is connected to just that – connection to me? If I compare my life to the smiling ideal images beaming from social media, will I be able to get a sense of self-sufficiency or will I continue the relay race of “happiness over the long haul.”
Sufficiency is multi-layered, it starts in the family environment, the words our parents used to encourage us and the way they supported us in our development. Was I good enough, smart enough, obedient enough, or did I always need a little more? Did it matter to the success of my six in math if Pena had a six too?
Subsequently, the social environment and its demands inexorably fall on our still immature adolescent system – Am I fit enough or do I have two more kilos to go? Am I performing well enough? And to make things even better we add entering our independent stages of life and satisfying societal norms – Is the position I’m working in good enough? Is Mladost a good enough neighborhood for me?
Often the body is the surest indicator of sufficiency. It can’t pretend, sometimes it’s just painfully honest. I don’t need to analyze whether I drank enough water if I can listen to my body’s signals, and it definitely doesn’t matter to my body how much water Pena drank. A panic attack, for example, is an alarm that goes off and signals – Enough! Stop! Not following your needs! The body often speaks to us, tells us and teaches us.
Overshooting has a price – achievement leads to exhaustion and lack of energy to assimilate and integrate the success we have achieved. Doing so robs us of the inner feeling of satisfaction and gratitude – gratitude for having the opportunity to jump and belief that I made the jump possible for me and that’s just enough! And the vicious circle turns: chasing someone else’s sufficiency, often at someone else’s pace, achieving goals, but not enough, because more is always possible!