A reflection on attraction, contentment, and staying on our chosen path
Life offers us countless attractions. Some are beautiful, some valuable, and some genuinely exciting. But does everything attractive deserve our attention or pursuit?
Imagine finding an excellent pair of shoes at a low price. You already have enough shoes and do not need another pair. Yet the offer is attractive and you feel tempted to buy them. May be there is something else that you need to buy but spending the money for the shoes will stop you from that. The shoes may be valuable, but are they valuable to you?
Alternatively, imagine you have a perfectly good car. You are happy with it until a friend buys a newer, more luxurious one. Suddenly, your own car seems not satisfying. Nothing about your car has changed, yet your happiness about it has diminished. You have lost nothing, but you feel as though you have lost something.
The same thing happens with our ambitions. We may have a meaningful job, a reasonable income, and a satisfying life. But seeing someone else’s success can make us question our achievements. We begin looking for something better, sometimes forgetting why we chose our present direction.
Perhaps the most serious example can be to do with marriage or partnership.
Someone may have a loving spouse and a meaningful family life. Yet another attractive person may offer the excitement of something new. Entertaining or investing in that attraction can be thrilling for a while. But gradually, it may weaken satisfaction with one’s spouse, redirect emotional energy, and damage a relationship built over many years. A moment of excitement may eventually cost someone years of companionship, trust, and happiness.
Of course, noticing attractions is natural. Seeking improvement is not wrong either. Sometimes changing direction is necessary, particularly when our present circumstances are harmful or unsuitable. The problem begins when we abandon something meaningful simply because something else looks more attractive.
Psychologically, social comparison can make us dissatisfied with things that previously satisfied us. Novelty can temporarily seem more rewarding than familiarity. And the more attention we invest in something outside our chosen path, the less attention may remain for what already matters.
Imagine life as a train journey along a track we have thoughtfully chosen. Along the way, we notice diamonds scattered beyond it. Some are genuine diamonds, not illusions. They may be beautiful and valuable. But collecting them requires leaving the train on the track, creating a whole new task of looking for a different train and boarding it, and sometimes risking our direction altogether.
We cannot collect every diamond, and we do not need to. Diamonds are valuable, but not more valuable than the orientation and the journey of life. Therefore, the real question is not whether that we have found is valuable. It is whether pursuing it is worth what we might sacrifice.
There will always be diamonds beyond the track. Wisdom may lie not in collecting more of them, but in knowing which ones to leave behind so that we can continue the journey that gives our life meaning.
