“You Are Enough”
Daily Meditation 595–10/13/2023
You aren’t enough and you know it.
We tell ourselves, often, that we “are enough.”
And, perhaps right this moment, we may be.
But.
If you’re 20, a cashier working 30 hours a week at $14 an hour…
Is that “enough” for you?
Will you be happy with this “enough” version of yourself at 30? 50? 70?
You’re 31, single, and without children, believing this is “enough…”
Is that “enough” for you?
Will you be happy with this “enough” version of yourself at 40? 50? 60?
Maybe you’re 56, retired, day drinking every morning, and bored…
Is that “enough” for you?
Will you be happy with this “enough” version of yourself at 60? 70? 80?
This concept — this unfortunate platitude — is a lie we tell ourselves to justify our current state.
Recently divorced and sluttin’ it up.
Binge drinking daily.
Living life frivolously.
Near zero savings and no plans to retire.
And so on.
These states may be “okay” in passing, short stints or phases for some of us.
But they will never, ever be “enough” to make us happy.
To give us meaning.
No number of sex partners will give you meaning.
No amount of drugs or alcohol will give you meaning.
No plentiful weeks of lazing about, playing games and enjoying porn will give you meaning.
Working into your 80s — or until you die — will certainly not give you meaning.
And all these things, you do for immediate and short term pleasure in exchange for long term, later-dated pain.
In the end, what we crave is MEANING.
Not really sex.
Not really a high.
Not really money.
Not really status.
These things may give us shots of joy, but we will want more.
Happiness is a byproduct of a life pursuing meaning.
And meaning is found from doing things that challenge us. That incorporate us into a (local) greater good. That helps us reach our “next peak” on our climb up the “Infinite Mountain” of eudamonia.
So, no.
You are not enough.
And that’s okay.
Because it’s a process of the improvement of the self which will enlighten us and pour meaning into us.
That is enough.
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These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”
