VLog #80 – What is contentment?
Video – VLog #80
What is contentment meaning?
What are the examples of contentment?
How do you get contentment?
Script – VLog #80
David Logan: Hi and welcome to The Techno Dinosaur Meets the I.T. Geek Vlog 80, eight, zero. My name is David Logan, I am the I.T. Geek the guy who takes the jargon out of technology for you the techno dinosaurs. Based here in Annan, South-West Scotland, UK. With me today is my normal partner in crime Willie Nicol. So, Willie, how are you and where are you?
Willie Nicol: Thank you David, yes to the viewer I am called the Techno Dinosaur because I am digitally challenged. I am not good with tech however I am also a personal development life coach helping people with their stuff that might be troubling them in their lives. I am based here in Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland, UK.
David Logan: Love that word stuff. Willie if we can stop laughing. As you know I go out walking every day and I listen to audios, it doesn’t matter mechanism I use, I use audible. Question is, I came up with this question, this is very apt for us for you. What is the secret to contentment? Over to you.
Willie Nicol: Thank you very much, very appropriate since my business is called Contentment Life Coaching, so contentment, what is it? Naturally I went online and had a look at some dictionary definitions. It is a state of happiness and satisfaction. It means you are happy with who you are, where you are, what you are doing, you are in the present. It doesn’t mean you don’t have any desires or ambitions. It just means you are happy where you are just now. I am going to access a couple of quotes which I found many moons ago about contentment. “The greatest wealth is to live content with little” – Plato, philosopher. “Contentment is natural wealth” – Socrates. Buddha “health is the greatest gift and contentment is the greatest wealth”. You are meant to see a pattern here. The word wealth is used quite often. “He is richest who is content has the least for contentment is the wealth of nature” Mr Socrates again and one final one from Benjamin Franklin a US philosopher and politician from the 18th century “contentment makes rich men”, sorry, “poor men rich, this content makes rich men poor”. This is maybe a metaphorical thinking contentment is a form of wealth. The funny thing is though we can define it, we can have our own opinions of it, our own meanings to it and some people will say well what is it really? You cannot go to Sainsburys and buy a jar of contentment, at least not the last time I went and sometimes it is kind of hard to define. What I would suggest is though while it might be hard to define, you certainly know when you don’t have it. Many people think life is a race to get bigger, better, fancier and generally speaking when your consciously striving for that bigger, fancier, shiny new thing you are not giving yourself the opportunity to make yourself content, you are not giving yourself the chance to sit back, relax and be happy with what you have got because you are always looking for that next big thing and that absence of contentment means it’s unlikely you will be happy, relaxed, calm whatever. The importance of contentment is I would suggest very high. There are many benefits to contentment some of which I will take from my notes, fairly obviously peace of mind. Contentment brings peace of mind and a positive mind set that means when we are calm, we have peace of mind, we are able to be grateful for what we’ve got accept what we have got. That doesn’t mean you don’t have ambition, dreams or aspirations not in least but while you have these, you’re still happy with where you are right now. I have touched on happiness again that’s something you can’t go into Sainsburys and buy a jar of, and people have different definitions of happiness. What might make you happy might not necessarily apply to me but again if we are not happy, we know what that’s all about. Letting go of these unattainable desires, unachievable goals, being happy where we are accepting where we are, being contented where we are is in my view a much better place to be rather than becoming frustrated upset and as we have talked about, I’m anxious, I’m stressed and worried. It is also good for personal relationships being content with the relationships round about you, not everyone will be the same as you, have the same standards as you. They might even disappoint you but find contentment in the fact that’s they are and don’t try and judge them too harshly. Be content with who you are within reason it doesn’t really matter who everyone else is. Accept people for what they are flaws and all. Contentment also allows us to distinguish between wants and needs. Something we want we might not necessarily be something we actually need. We might want a bigger car or a fancier house, do we need it? Possibly not, if we are contented with where we are just now with the car or the house that’s a better place to be. We can talk about abundance we have got plenty of stuff to be happy with just now worrying about the next big thing, the car, the house whatever it is. Contentment also leads to simplicity we tend to see things more simply. We don’t get stressed we don’t have the hamster wheel of thinking in our head constantly wondering what if? Can I get that? Should I go for it and so on and so forth. Instead of wanting all these things be content with what you have got already be grateful for what you have got already, accept what you have got already. So, contentment, gratitude and acceptance are all very important. Finally, the more thankful you are in the present now, the happier you’ll be just now rather than worrying becoming stressed and anxious about what you might want but don’t necessarily need. As I’ve said earlier on quite a difficult thing to define, you can’t buy it in a shop but I think the vast majority of people will know what they don’t have content or happiness or peace of mind. One of the reasons I called my business Contentment Life Coach, excuse me, was that during my coaching training and subsequently my business brought me content and that wasn’t always the case in my life but now that I am at this ripe old age I am more or less a contented person. I am a much happier person and a less stressed person, so I hope that has been useful to you today viewers. That is my view of content, thanks for listening.
David Logan: Thanks a lot for that Willie, so basically if you’re content, I’m not necessarily content myself we are all unique.
Wilie Nicol: We are all unique but it’s something we can strive for.
David Logan: Absolutely! To you the viewer I hope that answers the question, what is contentment? It’s a wide and varied subject. If you want to go deeper, discuss more speak to Willie, drop a comment below, drop us a private message above or contact us direct, if, assuming you’re connected to us. So if it’s for me David Logan the I.T. Geek, search for the Techno Dinosaur Meets the I.T. Geek subscribe to our YouTube series. Have a great week everybody!
Willie Nicol: Thank you David. As usual I’ll finish by saying to the viewer stay safe, stay well and be contented and always remember have some fun!
David Logan: Bye!!
