I don’t get what I deserve - thank goodness
I was thinking the other day, “I work hard—very hard. I really don’t get my fair share—I deserve more.” Maybe you’ve got a way to prevent this type of thinking but it’s easy for me to slip into. Whether I’m assessing the amount of free time, the places I get to go on vacation, the restaurants and frequency I visit them, the popularity of my writing and my business, the regard and respect I get from my adult children, my endurance and speed running—I somehow think I deserve more.
As I was starting to drown in my “I deserve more” thinking, I remembered the reason I started my business, Gratitude at Work—it was born of the realization
“my life was handed to me on a silver platter.”
Can you see ‘deserve’ in this belief ? Of course not !
Seriously, if I got what I deserved,
what society and family would I be born into ?
what system of education, healthcare and public safety would I have earned commensurate with my contribution ?
what access would I have to food, clothing and shelter and how would the barriers to these fairly align with/match up against the time and energy I’ve devoted towards each of these ?
If I got a glimpse of what I actually deserve, I think I’d be shocked and terrified—maybe even feel like I’m in a horror movie.
While we are making huge strides in progress as humanity, there is still massive social inequity and injustice in the world. A lot of people deserve more—and truly many deserve a lot more.
I hope you never hear me utter these words again and I hope you’ll think twice before saying “I deserve more.”
