KEEPING UP ILLUSIONS

Article by

KAYSOON KHOO

Is it important to you to keep up with the Joneses? Do you always try to keep pace with your contemporaries by acquiring all the things they have? Are you obsessed with upgrading your lifestyle so that it is at par with theirs?

If your answer is "yes" to all those questions, you're being unjust to yourself. How so? Because you're probably making a good many sacrifices you don't have to. You're putting yourself to unnecessary expense and wasting your time and effort trying to achieve something which is of no consequence at all.

You have to remind yourself that how the Joneses live their lives is really no concern of yours. When you acquire something for yourself, it should be because you really want or need it. Not because you feel you MUST have it to create a suitable impression.

And while you're trying to hold your own in this spirit of competition, does it ever occur to you the Joneses may have problems with which you're not burdened? For all you know, they may be wishing they were in YOUR shoes. Externals tell very little. That's why comparing and competing are exercises in futility.

You have no reason at all to try to "keep up" with anybody. You don't have to prove anything to anyone. Just live your life and enjoy what you have. That way you'll be really fair to yourself and to those who depend on you.