Have You Defined What ‘Enough’ Means to You?

This is an except from Mind Macros 07.

"The writers Kurt Vonnegut, the author of Slaughterhouse Five, and Joseph Heller, the author of Catch-22, were once at a party in a fancy neighborhood outside New York City.

​Standing in the palatial second home of some boring billionaire, Vonnegut began to needle his friend.

​'Joe,' he said, 'how does it feel that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel has earned in its entire history?'

​'I've got something he can never have,' Heller replied.

'And what on earth could that be?' Vonnegut asked.

'The knowledge that I've got enough.'" — From Stillness Is The Key by Ryan Holiday.

The concept of enough can be applied to all aspects of our lives, but let’s look at how it impacts our finances.

Wanting to earn more is not a problem, so long as we’ve decided what enough means to us. Issues arise when we play the comparison game and begin setting moving goalposts that keep us living in a state of ‘I’m not enough,’ or ‘I’m not there yet.’

These goalposts can scale depending on who you are too.

The rookie athlete compares his income with that of the team's star, while the star contrasts his salary with that of a hedge fund manager. The hedge fund manager looks up to Warren Buffett, who in turn compares his wealth with Elon Musk’s.

Gaining the title of ‘richest person in the world’ is not the end, as there will always be more games to play. Having no fixed endpoint, it’s an unwinnable battle.

If we fail to define ‘enough,’ our ambitions will scale along with our achievements. Without describing the destination, how will we know when we’re there? After all, we cannot hit an invisible target.