The positive bandage

It is said that we do not know what we have until we lose it. I would add that we forget what we have when we get used to having it. It is what I call "the positive bandage". It is a blindfold that prevents us from seeing the positive things that surround us since we have been living with them for so long that we have reached a point in which we hardly perceive them and therefore do not value them.

To exemplify what I am trying to explain I will comment on my personal experience. 10 years ago I had just started my degree and my only concern was to finish it and find a job. At that time I had health, a good family and many friends. However economically it was two candles, we already know how hard the student's life is at 20 years of age. If at that moment someone had told me how my life was going to be today, 10 years later, I would have jumped for joy.

To this day I have a stable job (related to the career I have studied) and several years of experience. This job has allowed me to buy a house and a car without the help of my parents. The family is still there and the friends too.

As I have already mentioned, 10 years ago I would have jumped for joy when imagining my current situation, then Why not hit them today?. Simply because I have become used to living as I do. Everything that surrounds me has become part of my daily life. I am aware of what I have and I am grateful for it. However sometimes I would like to go back to that mental state I had when I was a student to thank in a really effusive way the life I have now. Positive bandage prevents me from thanking as I should.

Perhaps it is so difficult for us to achieve happiness because once we achieve it we get used to it. In reality we have reached it with a different mental state than we had when we began to look for it. I will try to explain this with a metaphor based on my favorite sport, running: imagine that happiness is at the finish line of a 20 kilometer race. When the starting gun is fired you have a state of mind determined according to the happiness you hope to find at the end of the race. However, as the kilometers go by, your mental state changes until you reach the finish line and discover that happiness has become normal..

Happiness hasn't really changed. Who has changed has been you. Throughout the race you have become accustomed to adding kilometers on your back and having the goal closer and closer. As a consequence, instead of looking forward to that goal, you have begun to underestimate it. The person who reaches the goal is not the same person who started the race.

And I wonder: What can we do to keep within us a small part of that person who started his career? It is actually a rhetorical question. I don't have the answer either. However, I think that asking myself this question is the first step to extract from the past part of that mental state that I had when I was 20 years old. A part important enough to allow me to be thankful every day for the things I enjoy in the present.

In recounting my experience, I have focused on the evolution of the material and professional aspect. I am lucky that the other aspects (health, family and friends) have remained constant. However, they are no less important for that. In fact, it is about the truly important aspects of our existence and where we can observe more pronounced mental changes.

When we overcome a disease or a major pothole we want to eat the world, however little by little time goes by and the positive bandage acts again on us to return us to the same normal mental state that we had before suffering from the disease. We also find that person who is dying to find a partner and once they get it, they quickly get used to having one.

The positive bandage is not a negative in itself. In fact, if we reached a point of total satisfaction with our life, we would probably stop fighting and trying to grow. From my point of view the secret consists of try to find the balance. On the one hand, we must continue to value what we have achieved as the first day. On the other hand we must maintain the desire for improvement and personal growth. Ultimately, it all comes down to being grateful and growing.

To finish a little exercise: for the next 30 days try to find 1 thing each day that makes you thankful for the life you are living. You only have to invest 2 minutes of your time each time you wake up to remove the positive bandage and find that aspect of your life that you will be grateful for all day. After 30 days repeating the process, you may begin to value your life in another way..