We can get our dis-satisfaction...

WHAAAAAT?

Sorry, it's just one of those days. We all have them and at least this one will be over soon - 1 hour and 15 minutes to be exact as I write this.

So where were we? Yes, last time I mentioned a person who's written a book on the human condition and the surprising level of dis-satisfaction there appears to be in life for many out there.

His name... ah yes... Alain de Botton. He wrote "Status Anxiety" a few years ago in which he suggested that many people derive a significant amount of anxiety from their perceptions of their own status. He asked why it mattered so much to people and suggested how to better manage this.

So what? Does it matter? How much do you think it affects your life and the lives of those around you? I think we'd be lying to ourselves if we said it didn't matter to us at all. But it is interesting to observe ourselves and others and consider the impact of this single but perhaps significant element of our lives. A revealing question is to ask, if we didn't care at all about how others perceived us or we discovered that others didn't really care would we really spend our time and efforts exactly the way we do now? I'm sure for most it would be no. The degree of which it would change would obviously vary significantly.

For myself, my thoughts are that my life and time I spend would change. Perhaps not significantly, but it would in all likelihood change. I am committed to having a successful career and the motivation for that is primarily to provide myself and family with a good lifestyle and perhaps to some degree earn respect of those close to me. I spend a lot of my waking hours making sure this happens. At this point, even if the respect component were not there, I probably would still spend the same time. This will probably change later as circumstances develop.

Until next time...