I OFTEN FEEL LIKE the Grinch, who “puzzled and puzzled ‘till his puzzler was sore.” One question I’ve puzzled over endlessly: If what I do barely matters in the greater scheme of things, why in the world do I keep doing it?
Here are four related thoughts that often crop up in my writing:
We know why we keep pushing forward: It’s our hunter-gatherer instincts. We’re here today because our nomadic ancestors were never satisfied with what they had and instead—in their efforts to survive—strove relentlessly for more. The feeling of satisfaction we get when we make progress is a trick played on us by our genes, so we keep working hard.
But if we know this, why don’t we learn to chill out? Now that our daily existence isn’t a life-or-death struggle, doesn’t our relentless pursuit of progress start to seem like the frenzied activity of delusional men and women?
This bring us back to the old battle between “more” and “enough.” Somebody once joked to me that, no matter how much money folks have, their idea of being rich was having twice as much. But today, I’m not talking about more money or more possessions.
Instead, my focus is on more success—career or otherwise. We keep striving for one more big promotion or one last major achievement, so we can make our mark on the world, go out on a high note and thereafter rest on our laurels. But it almost never works out that way: We slip into retirement and what we achieved is reworked, abandoned, ruined or simply forgotten.
I try to comfort myself with the notion that we’re part of a conversation that stretches across the generations. We build on the work of folks who came before us and whose names we most likely don’t know. And our work will be built on by those who follow, and they most likely won’t know our names, either.
But I also think we should try to figure out what success looks like, so we can finish our life’s work with some sense of satisfaction. I’ve been endeavoring to do this myself. I think of HumbleDollar as my last big project—and I hope to keep it going for as long as possible.
At some point, however, I also want to feel like I’ve succeeded. But how will I know? I’m pondering what my goal should be—perhaps a target number of monthly website page views—so I’ll know when to declare victory and be satisfied with what I’ve achieved. Looking ahead to the end of your career or the end of the more active part of your retirement? I’d encourage you to engage in the same exercise.
Ponder what constitutes success and then write it down, so you don’t start moving the goal posts. To be honest, I’m not 100% sure this will work. But maybe, just maybe, if you achieve your written goal, you’ll have some peace of mind—and you won’t spend your remaining days wishing you had achieved more.
Follow Jonathan on Twitter @ClementsMoney and on Facebook. His most recent articles include User’s Manual, Just Asking and No Worries. Jonathan’s latest books: From Here to Financial Happiness and How to Think About Money.
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