Day of Distinction – Must I be Satisfied to be Content?

I love distinctions. I’m far from an expert and don’t claim to base mine on much more than how I’ve experienced a word or how it feels. I have an admitted addiction to my Thesaurus and fear that as we settle for the shortening of words and the discarding of punctuation we will lose nuance along the way. How boring will life become then! In honor of our amazing gift of words I declare Fridays the Day of Distinction, choose your words with care; they are an endangered species.

Must I be Satisfied to be Content?

To be satisfied feels as if there must have been some kind of goal or result or expectation involved. Satisfied seems to require action and a yardstick by which to judge the result of that action. Perspective plays a part in satisfaction as well. I can be satisfied with a result or an attempt at a result, depending on which perspective I choose. Is my perfectionist looking at whatever and satisfied with what I’ve done? Is the me who’s learning I am enough, the observer and therefore the intention behind and effort I put forth enough though the result is less than perfect? Satisfaction comes from the outside in and fills our need for measurable accomplishment.

Contentment on the other hand is a state of being, more a result of awareness and presence than doing or accomplishing. I can be in the midst of an unfinished project or even thrashing around in the throes of anguish, stop, notice the way the sun hits a branch or how cute my cat looks sleeping and be flooded with contentment, then return to whatever I was doing not yet satisfied. Contentment comes from the inside and wraps us in comfort and the feeling that all is well.

For example, I’m not satisfied with my life right now, without a job and the income it brings I am uncomfortable, feel less than and am frustrated that as skilled and experienced as I am no one wants to hire me. What more should I do or be to achieve my goal?

On the other hand when I really stop and look at my life right this moment, I have everything I need, dear loving friends, health and opportunity, suddenly I am content to trust that the universe knows what it’s doing.

On the flip side, satisfaction can have egotism and superiority as its downfall; contentment can lead to complacency and possibly sloth. (Or other “deadly” sins I suppose)

For each there is a place; satisfaction spurs us to try and often accomplish, then holds us in that higher level we’ve achieved. Contentment teaches us balance and to stop and smell the roses so we remember to be as well as to do.

Satisfaction is the cat that has just eaten the canary; contentment is the cat lying in the sun while the canary sings above him.

onward and upward,

© C A Crossman and Dancing Through Life with Spirit, 2012

Related articles

• Word Nerd Thursday: Complacency vs. Contentment (vonildawrites.wordpress.com)
• Be Satisfied (ladya191378.wordpress.com)
• Satisfaction in Life (socyberty.com)
• Contending for Contentment (beckybanaszak.wordpress.com)