Chasing Contentment or Caught in the Success Trap?

Can contentment truly be the greatest form of wealth? Inspired by the wisdom of Socrates, I embark on a personal journey to unravel the pressures of modern life. Through a tapestry of personal anecdotes, I explore how social media algorithms weave illusions of success that tempt us with the allure of bigger houses, faster cars, and dream vacations. I open up about my own curated feed of cats and car mods, and the conscious effort it takes to focus on what genuinely matters. Together, we grapple with feelings of envy and challenge the notion that success must mirror the glossy images we consume daily. Could it be that the societal standards of success are mere illusions crafted to keep us in a consumer-driven mindset?

Join me as we question the real value behind these aspirations, pondering whether true happiness lies in the simple joys of life rather than material possessions. Imagine if contentment was about more than just the things we have—it was about appreciating the roof over our heads and the peace in our own journey. We dissect the idea of contentment, asking if it's possible to redefine happiness through the lens of our everyday lives. So, as I share my candid reflections, let's walk this path together and explore the profound satisfaction found in life's smaller pleasures, challenging the relentless pursuit of more.

Transcript

Wes: 0:00

Welcome back to another episode of the Accordio West podcast, where being a man child and doing hood red things with your friends doesn't sound all too bad, as I continue to, as I continue on my never ending journey of self-improvement to be a better person than I was yesterday. What better way to do this than with the help of a quote from Socrates? And the quote today Is something simple Contentment is natural wealth. Now, contentment is natural wealth, so they say right. However, this world would truly have you thinking otherwise.

Wes: 0:50

Um, I am also often knocked over here with uh, cars that look better than mine, houses that are bigger than mine, vacation blogs to places, uh, I want to go. Don't get me started on social media. The algorithms that they have is built for tough man. It can be very beneficial to your mental health if you know how to use it, if you are using it the right way, or very detrimental, uh, low key. You know what mine is, my, my, what I see on my fees. Cats because my wife has a cat. Cars and how people tune them, the, the specific cars that I have. So I'm not really hit too much over the head with the oh, the bentley's and shit like that and music stuff like my shit is love. I can be on that bitch all day. But I do understand that my algorithm, my algorithm and my explore page is different from others. It's based off of what you seek out, and I purposely try not to seek out those things because I would like to stay content in what I'm doing.

Wes: 2:12

If you're constantly seeing what you see, it's impossible, but you know, and when you're seeing that stuff or you, you know you're around, uh, overachievers, or you have them in your life and you know it's, it's quite it's hard not to feel a certain way. You know, like I'm only human, like it's going to happen. You know I, I fall subject to the feelings of, of envy, and you know you human, it's not. There's nothing wrong with being envious. It's all about if you're acting on that enviousness. Did I say that, right? If you're acting on that, and even if you're acting on it, is it a positive thing or is it a negative thing? Like you're only human, sometimes you will act on it. But what do you do? There's a light of fire under your ass to do something, or you do. You do something like you know what. I'm gonna go rob that motherfucker envy. You know. But I have feelings.

Wes: 3:24

I do fall, uh, subject to feelings of envy or feeling like I'm not doing enough in my life to achieve these things that I see, or dreams that I've always. You know, those dreams of like, oh, when I get older I'm going to have a big house. When we driving this, when we making this, you know amount of money. You know you're saying these things when you don't know how the world works. And then when you get out there and you see how the world works, you're like what damn, everybody else is doing it, everybody else getting it. How are they getting it?

Wes: 3:55

You know you're not content because you see that it's possible, right? You know that it's possible because you see it, or so you think you see it could be all smoke and mirrors once again. Social media you know what conspiracy theory, west time, I think. I think some of this shit is all employed to get us to be consumers, stay consumers, continue to spend money and keep the the, the capitalist idea and and and values alive and to keep things going. That's how I feel sometimes, because if you was truly content, would you even worry about any of that shit? You got a house, you got a place to live you got. You can pay your bills, you can live comfortably it's outside the living comfortably or actually having shelter and food where it gets tricky.

Wes: 4:55

You know you want to be entertained, you want to enjoying the fruits of your labor have changed since, uh, from a hundred years ago. You know, enjoying the fruits of your labor was more or less like yo, I labored. Crops are growing. I'm enjoying that because I get to eat and live another day, now that most of us aren't farming and, you know, hunting for our food and stuff like that, it's like. Enjoying the fruits of your labor now means like yo, I got to go to a concert, I got to buy these shoes, I was able to take a vacation. Enjoy the fruits of your labor. I'm definitely not saying don't do that. Definitely enjoy the fruits of your labor. But you know, is there a limit to what certain people can do? Is there a baseline? Should everyone have a baseline? Nonetheless, we're getting off of spending and shitting.

Wes: 5:57

Capitalism, being content or having contentment, seems to be an impossible thing to master in this country. In a sense, not being content does allow for that determination to set in, to achieve those things like I was just saying like the vacation and stuff like that, or whatever have you, or just a better lifestyle, whatever have you, or just a better lifestyle like it allows you to it. It allows determination to set and to accomplish goals. Uh, put yourself in better situations. Um, be a good, outstanding member of society. Uh, be something to look up to all those things. Right, there is some positiveness and not being content of society. Be something to look up to all those things. Right, there is some positiveness in not being content.

Wes: 6:53

But if you are content, sometimes that none of that, it doesn't allow for any of that stuff to happen and you don't feel that, you don't get that feeling like the, the, you know the. I guess you don't get that feeling of worth. I'm not saying me, no, I am saying me because I have, I have had those moments where it's just like yo, what am I? Like? Society glamorizes or rewards, like the things like money, you know, possessions and lifestyle, so you're content. Sometimes you're not reaching that tier where people begin to, you know, see you and treat you differently. It's weird, I wish it wasn't like that and a part I'll be lying if a part of me, if I said a part of me, doesn't actually look at that stuff sometimes to, dare I say, not emulate, but just like yo, what is that really like? And there's been times where I reached a certain threshold I'm like, oh, this shit ain't shit. And then I go back to like being, not being.

Wes: 8:00

I go back to my personal regularly scheduled programming. For an example, as I got older and started working and making my own money, the coveted thing to do in high school was like yo, how was your shoes? What shoes did you get? Did you get the new Nike? Did you get the new J's? This, this and that, blah, blah, blah. It meant something in school. So I get outside of school, I'm able to do that. It means nothing to me now.

Wes: 8:33

So it's like that type of contentment, like what if I was still a rule, but I got to do this because I never know who will see me? And it's just like like no one sees me, not in a bad way, but just like I don't. Even I'm an adult that doesn't move like that. And even before I was married, the type of woman I wanted to attract or the type of uh circle I wanted to attract and give a kid, they didn't give a shit about that anyway. Yeah, your shoes have to be clean and shit like that. They couldn't just be anything. But yeah, they're not. They're not. They're not really checking if it's the newest or maybe they were, I don't really care. But However, I do believe this is where the quote touches home for me, and hopefully many others Like being able to get to a point where you are content with where you're at, or maybe the limit that you can reach when it comes to society, and definitely when it comes to your.

Wes: 9:33

Yeah, when it comes to society, because it ultimately affects your, your mental health, affects your well-being, your mental health, it affects your well-being. Um. So in this I never really thought about, I thought about contentment, right, um, and there's still some things I have a hard time with being content about, like yo, like maybe you should, just this should be your baseline, and you move on to something else. Or this is where you should, this is where you should, this is, this is you, this is what you're going to be. And then I struggle with the world. Motherfucker, you got one life to live. Why live the life of thinking that if you could have, would have, should have, my? Where would you be If you could have, would have, should have, like, where would you be? So that's a for me, that's a daily internal struggle where sometimes it affects me externally.

Wes: 10:48

Like college graduate, sometimes I think like yo, how far do I go or how far do I reach in my profession before I start to cruise control? Am I allowed to cruise control? And then inflation happened and I'm like, uh, I definitely can't. It's weird because society has forced me not to be content because of like, I got to a certain point and I'm like, okay, and then it was like that point's not good enough anymore, especially for where I live. And I'm not saying money is everything, but money is a a great tool to have for comfort, and I typically try to spend the money on comfort more than anything Like.

Wes: 11:27

When I say comfort than anything like, when I say comfort, I mean like making sure, making sure that you know, when I'm at home, the flow of my home and my, my life is, uh, it's good, it's a good, it's an easy flow. And what I mean by that? Like simple shit like yo, a wine fridge by my coffee bar and shit like that. Like what am I really working towards? I do stuff of like maintaining the house or doing things to improve more than I treat myself traditionally like I used to like with shoes or video games and stuff like that.

Wes: 12:03

So, in a sense, I reached a level of contentment and certain parts of my life, but the one thing that I haven't or haven't figured out yet is my career. And yeah, there's the, there's the um, there's the parody of uh like yo career money, but it's more or less the ability to earn the money when I need to earn the money and less about I need to earn the money now, if that makes any sense. I want to be in a situation and have myself said I was like yo. If I needed to, I can and I think I'm near. However, in order for certain comforts to happen, I need a little bit more money.

Wes: 13:02

So, for me, the contentment that I struggle with is not for possessions and not necessarily lifestyle, because it doesn't come with the possessions or the lifestyle that you would get with possessions. It comes with the yo. My 401k is straight, I got enough money in the bank for an emergency. I got enough money in the bank for an emergency. Short, random, unexpected emergencies won't hurt me. And I'm eating good food. When I say good food, non-processed food, all that shit costs a lot of money, and that's what I mean by like comfortable and lifestyle and like what the fuck am I working for if I can't even have that? So there's a lot of shit I kind of just put to the side like, yeah sure, I want a pair of prada america's cups. The shits look nice, I will get them. However, there are things that are first on that list. I am content without having them, and so all these are met. I'm content without ever having them If I actually come on, live a comfortable life and feel good.

Wes: 14:08

I learned at an early, early age. Now I learned in my early 20s that like those things don't make you feel good when you're sad or when you're depressed. Because I went through a moment of that. So not a huge moment. But you know college, you know shit changing, you know blah, blah, blah. Yeah, I went through moments of that. So, hell yeah, contentment is natural wealth. However, don't be content in everything. Be content in the mindset, your goals, be practical. Don't join the rat race. I ain't going to say go with the program. I'm not going to say go with the flow, but be true to yourself and you will find the flow. On that note, thank everybody for tuning in um be content, don't keep up with the Joneses. See you next time you.