There is a huge demand for serenity in our society.
BUT unknown, uncontrollable, unexpected – is what we have experienced in the last three years.
We live in a digital world where we can control everything in real life. That’s why today we are more afraid of things we can’t control than the generation of our grandma and grandpa. If we cannot control it, then we are afraid.
But if you approach life calmly and don’t have to control and can’t control everything, then you live a much more relaxed life.
Technology such as AI gives us the ability to control and plan everything. We no longer allow the controllable in our life, and this is why we don’t live a serene life as generations before us. We simply no longer allow things to be uncontrollable and unexpected. This is our problem. The generations before us didn’t have the same concerns as we do today because they let many more things happen and didn’t try. Our desire to develop new technology to know more about everything leads to a dependency on the known and leaves no room for the unknown.
For me, serenity comes from having achieved a goal. If I achieve something in everyday life, then I feel serenity. My main attitude towards life is serene and relaxed. I can resign to the unknown and a certain insecurity in life. I don’t need to know everything and be able to control everything. If there is nothing unexpected in life, then it is boring and you have no more challenges ahead to grow. Even in my job, money doesn’t give me serenity. Achieving goals, winning customers, and being successful, gives me serenity. Money can be gone tomorrow but strong relationships with customers give you the possibility to grow.
Money is often the definition of success and gives people serenity because it gives us peace of our mind to be able to decide things for ourselves and be able to control our lives because of the money we have. Money is power and power gives serenity!
I find this association wrong. When I think of my friends in Africa, who often have a lot less than people in my hometown in Leipzig, I have to realise that these people live a much more serene and happy life. The African people I met, often have a different attitude towards life and serenity, even with a much lower living standard. The people I met in Africa are often not as driven but the unknown and unexpected as we are here in Germany. People are simply satisfied with much less and do not have the need to be able to control and influence everything. I like to call this the “Hakuna Matata style”.
For me, that means money is not the key to serenity. Every time we get more knowledge and influence in our life, we want more and more. It makes us not feel appreciation for the status quo and what we have achieved. It makes a slave of the known and the expected!
I like to give an example from the world of sports. At the World Cup in Qatar, everyone remembers Ronaldo’s goal, where he cheered even though everyone saw that he wasn’t on the ball. A person, who has 500 million followers on Instagram, is known all over the world and can buy almost anything must still claim a goal, which wasn’t his. His teammate, who actually had scored the goal, stood by calmly. The question arises as to who of the two has the greater serenity in life.
This brings me back to the question: Does money, power and technology give us serenity in life or do these things make us more insecure and addicted to the known and expected?
What do you think?
