What Makes for Life Satisfaction

True satisfaction with one’s life is an acceptance of what is, continuing to prepare for what can be, while letting go of what we thought needed to be. So said Anne Wilson Schaef.

If you cannot accept what is, you cannot go on to what might be. If you cannot accept what is, you cannot enjoy your daily life, which is all that really is. To accept what is does not mean to be fully satisfied with it; it is of the human condition to want more, to strive to attain and to become. Take that drive away, and you lose life motivation. You always have to be working on, working toward something – all the while enjoying the process, which includes accepting where you are. Can you enjoy where you are, while still moving toward what you seek? However difficult it may be to do both, both are necessary for life satisfaction.

Daily life includes constant preparations. You prepare for the day, every day. You prepare for work, relationships, scheduling issues, hobbies, vacations, retirement, whatever. In addition to preparing for what you know is coming up, you need to be prepared for the unexpected. A savings account can do just that if needed: save you, financially.

It is wise to be prepared for the worst, while believing in, looking toward, seeking to bring in, the best. As Franz Rosensweig said, “I must do all that I can now, so that when the time comes, I can do all that I must.” The Scout’s motto says it simply: Be prepared.

Essential to your preparation is not to give up hope. You do not know what could be up ahead, things far better as well as far worse than you currently expect. Yet if you lose hope and give up, you will never know what might have been. It took Thomas Edison two thousand attempts to make a light bulb light up. And he said, “What if I had given up after nineteen hundred and ninety-nine?” He reportedly added: “I have also learned one thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine ways not to light up a light bulb.”

Life so often is what you end up doing while you are waiting to do the thing you thought you were going to do. That’s sure true of my life. I didn’t expect to be a pastor, and certainly not for over thirty years, in three states. I thought I would be an actor, or professor or writer.

In the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” George Bailey, ends up doing what he thought he would do only for a brief time, while what he hoped to do with his life materialized. It never did. Yet what he did mattered to many persons, what he did made a greater difference to fewer persons than he may have wanted, but when confronted by their collective witness, made for great life satisfaction. His life ended up well worth living.

You may not get everything you want, as so few ever do, but if you can only appreciate what you get when you get it, you can experience life satisfaction. We spend way too much time overvaluing what we want but do not have, while undervaluing what we actually do have. What you think needs to be there can interfere with your enjoyment of what actually is. Sometimes the worst thing that can happen is for you to get what you thought you needed.