As the clock has wound down on the first month of 2024, I find myself thinking back to past years and to the way we always start off a new year with lots of energy, hope and determination.
A little over a year ago, I even remember being hopeful at the start of 2023, although I sit here about 13 months later and cannot get past the feeling that it was a bit of a disappointing year. And so, I set forth into this new year with the hope that it would be better.
Like most people, I don't like to feel disappointed. Of course that leaves the option of setting lower expectations, resulting in a greater chance that whatever lies ahead lives up to those expectations. Another option is to not have any expectations at all, and just allowing the days to unfold as they wish.
One of the things I have learned over the years is that any feelings of disappointment we experience are usually directly connected to having a great deal of attachment to an outcome. When we are very attached to something specific happening, we'll likely feel a great deal of disappointment when the final result doesn't come to pass the way we had hoped for.
I realize that this kind of "just letting things be" flies in the face of most of Western philosophy's obsessions with success, setting lots of goals and having lots of resolutions and so on and so forth.
The reason I'm even thinking these thoughts right now, is that I have had too many years in a row that have felt disappointing at the end. I get around to the following January, and all I can think of is "good riddance" to the old year.
Some months back, a friend ours came visiting for a couple of days.
Although he is a US citizen, he has actually lived in Indonesia for the majority of the past decade, where he mostly works as a consultant to large western hotel chains trying to set up and maintain resorts in Indonesia.
It's always interesting to talk to David because of the insights into a completely different culture he shares.
One of the stories he told us was of the troubles one large resort was having with staffing. They had chosen to recruit locally to be on good terms with the people living around the resort.
The thing that was a mystery was that they were paying more than double the normal local rate (still a fraction of what they pay stuff in the USA), and all the workers were openly very happy and spoke highly of both their jobs and management... and yet, most of them would quit after six months or a year.
They tried to do exit interviews to make more sense of the situation... but it was strange because the workers insisted they were doing everything right. The workers were happy, and then they'd leave.
Eventually, someone asked the right questions and it turned out that because the hotel staff were so well paid, they'd just work until they had saved up enough to not work at all for six months to a year. Even though they were making enough money to substantially upgrade their lifestyle, they were choosing not to, and instead were grateful for the opportunity to not work more than 50% of the time.
When I reflect on that, it doesn't seem so far fetched. If I were to suddenly make twice what I needed to live, I'd also likely save up the overage and then not work for a while. In fact, I have lived somewhat like that, at various points in my life.
That might sound rather alien to those who are driven to work all the time, and for whom "enough" is not even a concept that exists.
But when your inclination to work — and even to work long hours — has never been wrapped around the idea of always having more, the primary appeal of money becomes the opportunity to not have to work so hard!
Yet, many people live to work, rather than work to live. Alas, for many here in the USA, it's a choiceless choice between working your fingers to the bone and destitution.
Even so, I'm still going to continue forth into 2024 with hope, but also with lowered expectations.
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your week!
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Created at 2024-02-02 00:28 PST
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