Choosing to be Content vs. Settling — What’s the Difference?
Well, I don’t want to settle!
Many of us probably have said this a time or two in our lives.
Heck, I’m sure divorce lawyers have heard it enough to where if they got a dollar for each time they could buy an island in the Mediterranean!
Throughout our lives, we often wrestle with situations where we feel unsatisfied.
Each time hoping for more or, at least, something different.
Maybe it’s a relationship, job or dwelling place. Whatever the scenario, it is often when the situation no longer brings the satisfaction we then say to our gladiator selves: fight this, find a way out and don’t settle!
Why?
Because culturally we’ve tied settling to one who is the loser. If you settle then you’ve obviously compromised. And if you’ve compromised then you’ve certainly fallen to second or last place to a particular person or thing.
But what if every scenario wasn’t about losing or settling to live, an entity or a person?
What if we took a different view of it and instead of taking a passive white flag approach we took a more intentional stance to simply choose to be content with the situation.
The internal conversation shifts to while this may not be the ultimate place or situation I’d like to be in …I’m going to continue to move forward in this route because of what it is providing for my life.
This provision may be vital.
It may be a means to an end.
By changing our mindsets, we can then purposely chose to continue in a particular direction. As we know that the decision to stay the course will not be forever, but that we can rest in our current choice to be content with it.
Could we be doing more or doing something different?
Maybe.
Possibly.
But are we going to beat ourselves up about it because we’re not?
Nope.
It is better to simply enjoy life, do the best we can and appreciate the current situation for what it is.
It’s not giving up if we are being intentional and realistic about what that current situation is and what it is doing for us in that season of our lives. If there’s any settling, it’s in the form of rest, peace and contentment about where we are and why we are there.
The only caveat to this is if the current situation is detrimentally causing physical violence and/or negative effects on our health and well being.
Certainly, these are situations where we need to get out of the situation and not settle for the continual torment of abuse or demise.
Yet what this article speaks to, is the predominant dissatisfaction surrounding jobs and life journeys that many of us tend to question whether or not we are settling.
While it’s okay to strategize, plan and work towards moving into a more desirable situation. It is best to be at peace and rest about the future outcomes and possibilities.
Knowing that even if we don’t get there that we still did not live a failed life of settling just because we did not reach our dream standard of life fulfillment.
