I feel like contentment is something that you hear about a lot in college. It’s something that everyone is always searching for, myself included.

I’ve had countless talks about it with friends, how it’s hard to be content in times of heavy schoolwork loads, or in times of singleness, or in times of sleep deprivation. I’ve had countless introspective evenings while doing homework about how if XYZ would just happen, I would finally be content.

I agree that it is good to always strive to move forward and be living your best life possible.

But these longings and parameters for contentment are dangerous.

We as a society spend too much time focusing on what we don’t have to ever be able to be fully content. Even if our long wish list were to be filled, I am convinced that we would all just find something else for us to be wanting after. In our search for contentment, we are setting ourselves up for the inevitability of never feeling fully content.

Thankfully, the solution to this is relatively easy; stop being entirely focused on the future! It’s kind of corny, but you should live in the now.

If we spent half the time we spend wishing about things to have in the future just looking around at what we have NOW, we would be a lot happier. If I’m honest with myself, half of the things I long for, I am already surrounded by, I just don’t appreciate them enough (which is super hard to admit).

If I would just take my eyes off of the future possibilities, I would be able to see my current reality for what it is. And I could be content.

As per usual, humans are their own cause of unhappiness. I imagine God is up in Heaven smacking His forehead, waiting for us to understand what He’s teaching us.

God gives us everything that we need to be happy, right where we’re at in life. The reason we are so unhappy is because we are looking around and are claiming that the things God is giving us are not good enough for us. How prideful can we be?

Next time you feel alone, and feel like all you need to be happy is a really good friend, stop and look around you. Odds are, there is a wonderful friend sitting right next to you, so wonderful, you don’t even realize how much they quietly add to your life.

Next time you feel like you’re so busy, and feel like all you need is time to take a break, stop and think about how much time you’ve spent watching Netflix that week. I heard someone say recently that they often mistake laziness for resting. If you feel like you’re busy, cut out things that help you to be lazy, get your work done in a timely manner, and you will find that you have more time than you realize.

Being introspective is not bad. Wanting and asking God for things is not bad. What is sad is when we do not allow our eyes to look around and notice the blessings that we are already surrounded by. Blessings we will surely lose in our quest to find our idea of what the blessings should look like. That would be a worthy cause for discontentment.