Concepts discussed: fearlessness
If you’re coming from my Instagram post feel free to jump straight to the story section of this article. If you’re new to this article I encourage you to watch the Instagram video and read the caption where I share thoughts on how I think Lebron used gratitude and contentment to handle the expectations and pressure placed on him as a high school grad before entering the NBA.
Overview
In addition to the Instagram story and its caption, this article contains a perspective on how gratitude and contentment can help us live more fearless lives. I share a story of how I unintentionally discovered these insights and think this story will help you find ways to be more grateful and content in your life.
A story of someone unintentionally realizing the value of gratitude and contentment
I think this story will help you find ways to practice more gratitude and contentment in your life
This is not a plug for Christianity or religion but relative to today’s date, I recently went to a church service to give thanks to my creator through the praise worship part — not the sermon — of the service. Note: I don’t believe that there’s one right religion to follow but do think that we were created by something and acknowledging that creator is beneficial for understanding our reality. This day was unique because I didn’t want anything in return for my praise AKA “a better life” and a few minutes into singing my first song I started uncontrollably crying. The song’s theme was giving thanks to God and I cried because I think for the first time I felt gratitude for everything that I’ve had and have been able to do during my life.
Am I ok?
I also recognized and accepted that I’ve spent a lot of my adult life feeling like who I am isn’t ok or that all that I’ve been able to acquire and have, has never been enough for me to feel ok about myself. I’ve had an underlying expectation that I should always be getting more blessed and this expectation made it difficult to acknowledge how many times I’d already been blessed. With reflection, I started asking: Who am I to demand that I must be given more? Am I a special being? Is there a human law that states Harrison should always get more? At what point will I be ok with myself? Will it be after the 100th or 500th blessing? This awareness moved me and I started to think “Wow, if I never get anything I want again, I want to be ok with that because I’ve already had the fortune to be blessed over and over again.” I then prayed for the wisdom that if I were to lose everything I have or fail to get or achieve future desires, to remember that my creator has already blessed me in this life and that I’ll be ok.
Contentment
Then I had a realization about contentment. It can be difficult to be content with what one has because there’s a belief that things should always be better but I think the inability to be content is a source of a number of human issues. I don’t think striving for more is wrong, but when the need to improve is driven by the belief that one can’t be ok with themself without whatever “better” is, one may be susceptible to things we typically view as crime or “bad” like wanting to intentionally harm others, violating the rights and boundaries of others, fraud, manipulation, etc.
Fairness
I think this awareness of contentment also requires one to acknowledge the idea of “fairness” because some people seem to have more advantages than others. We sometimes say that those we believe are disadvantaged were dealt a “bad hand.” Gratitude and contentment are likely more difficult for some and perhaps they’ve been given a tougher challenge for being grateful and content but I think there’s a number of these individuals who practice gratitude and contentment despite the challenge and I work to recognize the nobility in that continually.
Closing thoughts
If someone lives a life of gratitude and contentment, I think that leads to fearlessness and empowers us to embrace the uncertainty of life. This fearlessness enables one to embrace uncertainty because come hell or high water we know it’ll be ok….perhaps, that’s the kind of fearlessness our creator wants us to have which I think is a moment-to-moment battle that when won, is the act of practicing faith and courage.
Feel free to add a comment for any thoughts (questions, new views, etc) that s may have bubbled up in you after reading this. 🙏
