2022 will become a fantastic year for me [and you?] because I am [at last] willing to overcome my discontent by being happy with my current circumstances [see photo].
First, and foremost, I accept that we all live in a world of plenty. For me [as a minimalist] this means I live in a world of excess wants [held by others] and a core set of needs [held by me]. So in 2022, I will excess on my needs and pay for that decision by shedding others' wants.
Second, I accept that discontent is a natural condition for the human race. Thus discontent is a constant challenge for all of us. In turn, this means that "being happy" is a state of mind that is constantly being interrupted by the discontents in your environment. And so if you can lower your levels of discontentedness you will have more opportunities to be "happy".
Third, I accept that discontent is layered into our global world and is thus brought to us on a minute-by-minute basis by advanced digital technologies. Therefore, I expect an increasing demand for human face-to-face contact in 2022 in the physical not the virtual world. Sure this could be a short-term reaction to us having been locked down in our homes for the past two years. However, I contend our 2022 need for face-to-face experiences is a rational reaction to the "latent discontent" embedded in the digital [or virtual] representation of our world.
Fourth, the 2022 world seems to be telling us that our digital access to "human happiness" does not scale easily. It turns out, that an individual's happiness comes with a context that he or she has created or accepted. If we accept the current levels of embedded discontent in our digital systems we will struggle to attain reasonable levels of human happiness. I prefer to escape the digital/virtual world [as much as possible] so that I can become more attached to, and in touch with, my tangible world and thus have greater access to human happiness.
Richard.
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