In school, studying human economic behavioral patterns, we were taught and made to believe that our wants and needs are insatiable, while this is totally true, the idea that this human nature is fueled by greed is not completely true.
The whole basis of our existence is: progress. The core of human advancement is built on the concept of more.
The premise of our existence is solving problems that create existential barriers for us.
In reality, the risks and problems we face create needs and wants to be met and because of the uncertainty of life, it's difficult to maintain a level of constant contentment, because of how life changes.
Life's requirements as we advance as people take different dimensions
The only way we tend to cope is by creating a scale of preferences, where we eliminate the things we need "less" and elevate the things we need "more".
This doesn't mean that the things we need "less" are actually not needs, it's just that having limited resources, makes us find creative ways to redefine insatiability and this is where a balance is created.
This is why I think the focus shouldn't be on our insatiability, it should be centered on the limitedness of one's resources.
Some of the things we call "insatiability" are the things we need to survive that keep piling up until we can no longer keep count.
The stages in our lives require us to financially meet some demand to improve our quality of life and when we do not take care of these financial requirements, they clash with the ones we might futuristically have, making it impossible to meet up with.
Attaining a state of contentment is not being happy with mediocrity or settling for less, it's about having enough minimally or realistically.
However, we cannot control the cost of our reality, what we mostly do is to come up with creative or minimal ways to 'reduce" rather than "control" it.
The World is An Expensive Place To Live In
For example, we cannot control the cost of clothing but we can select or control our dress idea, to maximize the resources we have.
The world is expensive to live in and some of the things that we need to meet some specific demands in our lives now come with complements.
For example, seeking to live off-grid, which is an example of minimalist living is not always as cheap as people think it is unless you want to live in severe lack and want.
For example, generating one's electricity is not cheap, and building a comfortable thatch house is not easy, in a place like Nigeria, you'd have to buy land because land is expensive.
So having the idea that you want to reduce the "insatiability mindset" might just make you achieve some ironic situations
There are times people want to cut costs on the things they eat and end up not maintaining the level of nutrition they need for their body, the downside of this is that they'll still have to go back to the hospital to spend that money they were trying to save in the first place.
Sometimes, we are not insatiable, the cost of affording the necessities of life just exceeds the resources we have, which creates the illusion that we want too much from life.
Some of the things we need attract the things we want.
For example, the need for cheap transportation requires one to have a car.
A car on a normal day is a symbol of comfort, so while we do not aim to be overly comfortable, we want a car because of the ever-increasing cost of public transportation.
So it's easy for others to think you are seeking for too much when you are aiming to actually minimize cost and reduce certain risks.
At the end of the day, we realize it's not us, it's our reality that's changing, and making us blend into this adaptation.
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