“You said one day you’d own a car like this!”
I still remember the add on TV from when I was a little kid. It was an add for the ALL NEW!! Infiniti Q45 which had just launched in Australia. It was the first car (probably not, but the first car I was aware of anyway) to have Remote Keyless Entry. All you had to do was press a button and the car would automatically unlock. You could open the car door and get in without having to mess about with putting a key in the door. Great for when it’s raining. I still remember the slogan, “You said one day, you’d own a car like this!” It was positioned as being futuristic and, back then, it was.
The idea of have a car with “Remote Keyless Entry” seemed like it may as well have been ripped strait out of “The Jetsons”. It was ultra-luxurious and exclusive. Indeed, there were only 4 Infiniti Dealerships in all of Australia and it was priced well over $100,000. Back then, you could have probably bought a house in Sydney for around the same price.
Why do I tell you this, because it made a mark on me. I can still remember it to this day. I can remember saying to myself, that one day, when I grew up, I WOULD own a car like that. I thought if I could have a car with remote keyless entry, that would be the pinnacle of motoring perfection. You couldn’t get any more advanced than that. I would be the happiest guy in the world. Remember that, I thought if I could ever have a car with remote keyless entry I would be the happiest guy in the world.
Well, I did grow up, (well mostly anyway, who wants to be totally grown up, that would be no fun) and I DID eventually end up having a car with remote keyless entry. And I was VERY HAPPY about that. But time doesn’t stand still. Technology keeps on changing. Then came the day when I got my first car with wireless keyless entry. You don’t even need a remote for that! You just walk up to the car with the thing in your pocket, you don’t even need to take it out, press it, or do anything. It automatically unlocks the car without you doing a thing. When you get in, you don’t need a key, you just press the START Button and you’re off! Get out, walk away, it senses you’re leaving and locks the car!
This Is Great !
But then recently I had a minor accident. Nothing bad, I was stopped at the lights and a van ran up the back of me. I was fine, and it didn’t do a lot of damage to the car. But nonetheless, it needed to spend a bit of time in the shop getting repaired. The accident wasn’t my fault, so the insurance kindly shouted me a hire car.
But then to my great horror, <GASP> the hire car DID NOT HAVE Wireless Keyless Entry, it had REMOTE Keyless Entry! It had the very thing that I said as a kid if I ever had, I would be the happiest guy in the world! Was I the happiest guy in the world? NO! Let me tell you, I would not have even made the Quarter Finals of the “Happiest Guy In The World Contest” at that time.
I felt like I’d been cast back to the middle ages! I’d walk up to the car, I’d have to put my hand in my pocket, I have to pull the remote out, then I have to press the remote. When I got inside, I’d have to actually fiddle around with the key to put it in the ignition, then I have to actually turn the ignition to start the engine. I thought to myself, “Now I know how Job felt!”
It was then that I caught myself feeling this way. I had to laugh about the irony of it all. It got me thinking about why is it that we as human beings are never satisfied?
I think Bruce Springsteen summed it up best...
Poor man wanna be rich,
Rich man wanna be king,
And a king ain't satisfied,
'til he rules everything,
~ Bruce Springsteen (Badlands)
Well, first of all, in one way it’s not a bad thing. The idea that we want more than we currently have is a good thing, it’s what has driven civilisations forward since the beginning of time. Without the desire for more, there’d be no progress.
Where it becomes a problem is when we start to have a attitude of entitlement. Thinking that life owes us something. We’re all born worthy, worthy of love, worthy of happiness. We’re not born entitled to “things” like possessions. Thinking I don’t have this and I should have is what gets us into trouble.
Even worse is when we start to feel as though we “need” this. We feel inadequate without it. Whatever it happens to be. The rich man begins to focus more on how much he is missing out on by not being king. My hire car, (I have my car back now lol), didn’t make me feel as wonderful as I assumed it would as a kid because I was thinking “Woe is me” because it’s not as good as I’m used to. And it’s silly, and it’s something we all do as humans, but at least I’m aware of it.
The solution is not to loose sight of the prospect or the challenge of always striving to reach greater heights and enjoy greater things from life, but never for a moment think that you NEED the next thing, the next level. Don’t feel as though you’re a failure without it, don’t feel as though you’re inadequate without it.
And never forget to feel gratitude for what we have. As I always say gratitude for what we have is based solely on what we have. It has nothing to do with comparison. We don’t feel gratitude for having food to eat because there are people starving. Gratitude based on comparison is not true gratitude at all. When we’re grateful for the food we have, we just feel gratitude for the food. We enjoy the food, we don’t need a reason to, we just do.
This is blog more of a confession on my part that I caught myself out feeling this way, so there’s no homework as such, but it is nonetheless a useful exercise for you to ask yourself, what are some of the things that you’ve been feeling unsatisfied with in your life, that you’re feeling down because you don’t have, and how can you change the way that you feel about this?