Embracing Sufficiency: You Have Enough
There's a term I love. It's called "house money." House money is the profit you make above your investment, like your winnings in Vegas. There's a tendency to treat that money with less fear and attachment. You risk more and care less. You didn't have it to begin with, so roll the dice and if you lose it, no big deal. What you started with is your base line of sufficiency. Everything above that is just play money. An unexpected bonus.
I touched on this topic in my Year of Enough post, but I want to explore it more here. I'm really loving this concept of sufficiency lately. Sufficiency says you have everything you need right here, right now. More will not make you happier. If you think you need more (money, square footage, definition in your abs, stamps on your passport) to be happy, you're wrong. Once you have those things, you'll just want even more because the finish line just keeps moving. Picture a static space between you and the finish line - you take one big mama step, the finish line takes one big mama step. Always out of reach.
So then I have to ask myself these questions. How do I define sufficiency in my life? What is enough? If this is it - right here, right now, the life I have today - am I happy?
What holds us back from choosing happiness in sufficiency? Are we afraid if we say "this is great! I don't need more in my life to be happy" that the Universe will stop providing? What if it's actually the opposite? What if it's in the embrace of sufficiency that the Universe rewards us with more? What if knowing we can be trusted to love what we already have is what the Universe needs to know to open up new doors and flood us with even more abundance?
It makes so much sense, right? Think about real world examples of this. At work, you don't progress by complaining about your current job and wanting the next promotion. You progress by being so amazing in your current role that your boss thinks they'd be crazy not to promote you. You don't get a better body by hating the one you have. You get a better body by loving on the one you have and appreciating it with healthy food and movement.
But what if this is it? What if this is as good as it gets? I bet if you stepped back and looked at your current life, you'd be really happy and want to hold onto your blessings for dear life. If you're reading this, you have a roof over your head, you have nutritious food to eat, you have people who love you. There are people around the world who would give anything to have just a day (an hour even) in your life.
Like everything, embracing the peace of sufficiency and trusting that abundance will still come isn't an overnight shift. This is like a muscle you have to work a little every day. I'm going to start by writing down the details of my life as it is today. I'm going to sit back and really take it in. If this life, as it is today, is the finish line, am I happy? Is it enough? It all starts in your mind and with your words. When I catch myself thinking or saying I wish I had more of something...I'm going to pause and change "I wish" to "thank you." The blessings will continue to flow. Or maybe they won't. But what I know for sure is that I deserve to feel complete and happy right here, right now and so do you.
