I hadn’t seen this young man since the day he left our school in 5th grade. I knew he was on my son’s wrestling team. He is a sophomore wrestling varsity. Luckily for me, he just happened to get wrestler of the week so I got to see his picture with his name under it hanging up in the school. Otherwise, I could have walked past him a hundred times and never would have recognized him. 

I got to see him wrestle that day.  It was a super-exciting match. Shortly after the match, I got the opportunity to speak with him. Do you know what the first thing he said to me was? He looked me right in the eyes and said, “I miss your class every day.” I was completely caught off guard. I was instantly choked up and my eyes started to water. Five years later and that’s the first thing he thought to say to me.

I feel like I always tried my best, relative to all the other things I was juggling in my life. I always felt a sense of accomplishment with what I was doing. Yet, I was often left questioning whether I did enough? Was it all enough? My guess is, I am probably a lot like you and perhaps you have these thoughts too. 

I am reading the book Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. (Great last name, but no relation). There is a chapter where he talks about the people who are the most content with their lives are the ones who realize they have enough. He obviously didn’t just mean financially. His point was that so many people have everything they could reasonably need, and a lot of things that they want. Yet that doesn’t seem to be enough for many. 

I have been thinking about the word “enough” a lot lately, even before seeing my old student. This was over a week ago and I am still so blown away by what he said. Maybe what I was doing back then was enough. This young man might argue that it was more than enough. And if what I was doing was enough, maybe what you are doing is enough. I’m not for one second saying that we shouldn’t try to raise the bar and strive for more. What I am saying is that perhaps we need to give ourselves a little more grace. Perhaps we need to take a wide-angle view every now and then. Maybe we should at least consider that our efforts for all the people in our lives, and all the things we do for them, may not only be enough, but it might even be more than enough, especially in their eyes.  

I would love to know what you think of my blog. I hope you have a great day and KEEP MOVING!

This microblog post was a featured post in #slowchathealth’s #microblogmonth event and was originally shared on Mark’s own site. You can search for all of the featured posts here. Please do follow each of the outstanding contributors on social media (including Mark Housel, the author of this post) and consider writing a microblog post of your own to be shared with the global audience of slowchathealth.com. Mark is a three-time author. CLICK HERE to check out all of his books.

Pair this post with the following:

Don’t Let Other People Ruin Your Fun by Mark Housel

What Is The Most Fun Thing You’ve Ever Done? by Mark Housel

Happiness Factories by Phil Mathe

The Power of Meaningful and Joyful Experiences by Leticia Cariño

Have you read the latest Book of the Month recommendation?