How to Be Content with Your Life

In general, money problems and massive consumer debt all stem from one thing: discontentment.

When you’re not happy with your life you resort to filling in the hole by buying stuff. Stuff that brings you temporary happiness but then depletes all your time, energy and money.

In the past couple years I’ve finally got to the point where I absolutely love my life and wouldn’t change a thing.

I’m content. I’m happy. But it wasn’t always like this.

Here’s what I’ve learned.

You’ve Got to End Bad Relationships

You can’t be happy if you’re always around negative people. It just doesn’t work.

To be honest, I was a pretty miserable person when I was married. When I got pregnant with my first daughter I decided that getting married was “the right thing to do.” Even though my gut instinct told me it wasn’t.

I went through six years of really not loving my life until it finally came to be too much to bear.

Getting divorced was another low point in my life but after I recovered from the emotional and mental stress I became a new person. A happy person. And I think it was one of the best choices I made for both me and my kids.

Now don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that you should get divorced. Marriage is a wonderful thing I just happened to get married when I was too young and immature to understand what a healthy relationship truly was.

But you do have to weed the negative relationships out of your life.

If you have a friend who is always doubting you, complaining, or just being negative you need to have a heart to heart with them.

Know What You Want

That’s a pretty broad statement but it’s also one that makes you think.

What is it that you really want out of life?

For me I want awesome relationships. Money, material possessions, and work don’t mean much at the end of the day.

You see, whether you like to think about it or not, you’re going to die.

And when you enter your final days what do you want your life to look like? I seriously doubt that anyone has ever regretted not working enough.

What most people regret is not creating meaningful relationships with their friends and family.

At the end of the road other people are what matter.

Make a Plan

Just a year ago one of my big complaints about my life was my job.

I worked a crappy job as an insurance agent that paid $11.50 per hour. I actually had to work a second job as a bookkeeper just to survive. It sucked.

So I decided to change that.

I started working on making money by doing something that I enjoyed and by October of 2013 I had started earning enough money to quit the crappy job.

Now I do what I enjoy doing plus have all the flexibility in the world.

If one of my kids is sick I don’t have to worry about making my boss mad by not going to work. If I’m under the weather I can take a nap in the middle of the day.

I created the life that I love.

Count Your Blessings

If you live in America you should consider yourself blessed. You’re living in a country that not only has clean water and abundant food sources (not to mention loads of government help) but you’re also living in the land of opportunity.

Instead of pitying your life think about what life would be like had you been born into a third world country. Seriously, you should consider yourself pretty darn lucky.

On top of that you have your family and friends. You probably have a home, job, and food.

There are so many things you can be thankful for.

If you ever start to pity yourself go read a story about a kid who is dying from cancer or a mom who can’t provide her children with food or water and is on the brink of starvation.

Yeah, you’re pretty lucky.

Conclusion

Finding contentment is something that you need to do to live a fulfilling life.

Weed the negativity out of your life and make a plan to build the life that you love.

What do you do to find contentment?