The Mindset of Enough Buddhist Practices to Transform Money,
Work,
And Life From Spencer Sherman Back in 1916,
A journalist posed a simple question to John D.
Rockefeller,
The world's first billionaire.
How much is enough?
Rockefeller's answer?
Just a little bit more.
Any financial expert could have told Rockefeller that he didn't need to worry about money for the rest of his life.
He had the math of enough figured out.
But he was missing the mindset of enough.
Western culture has fully embodied Rockefeller's worldview.
We believe more is always better,
No matter what we already have.
And I'll be candid,
This was once the story of my life and the lives of many students and clients.
Our minds are remarkably creative at inventing new mores to chase.
More wealth,
More status,
More party invitations,
A nicer home,
A more sculpted body.
But this constant grasping pulls us through life hunched forward,
Driven by a sense of inadequacy and scarcity rather than purpose.
It keeps us from recognizing what we already are.
Enough,
Right now.
Here's what finally helped me break free from the pursuit of more.
First,
I stopped running from the pain.
I allowed myself to fully experience,
Rather than suppress,
How much the pursuit of more was actually hurting me psychologically,
Physically,
And financially.
Second,
I learned to befriend my own resistance.
Through meditation,
I learned that it's far more effective to welcome the beliefs you're trying to change than to fight them.
I developed a daily practice of creating space for the voices that say,
I'm not enough,
I don't have enough,
I don't do enough.
Getting curious about these thoughts,
Rather than pushing them away,
Helped diminish the fear.
My self-judgment softened,
And gradually,
More became less seductive.
Third,
A client opened my eyes.
He once told me,
If you can double my money,
I'll retire.
I'll feel free.
Five years later,
When his wealth had indeed doubled to a truly substantial amount,
Even by Bay Area standards,
I invited him to my office to review his new financial situation.
I expected to see relief,
Maybe celebration.
Instead,
He looked stressed and solemn.
I've thought about this,
He said quietly.
I need one more doubling to be really free.
That moment changed everything for me.
I began retraining my mind,
Slowly softening decades of conditioning.
The Buddha said it,
And neuroscience later backed it up.
What we frequently think about becomes the inclination of the mind.
So I started consciously acknowledging ordinary moments of enough,
At work and at home.
My conversation with a colleague was enough.
The mediocre weather was enough.
My furniture,
My car,
Enough.
And through meditation,
I learned to fully experience the sublime quality of enough.
A quality that only exists right now,
Not in some imagined future.
Isn't enough limiting?
What if I want to run for political office,
Train for a marathon,
Engage in climate activism,
Become a generous philanthropist,
Start a company,
Write my memoir,
Or learn to surf?
I don't want to just retire to a hammock.
Okay,
I hear you.
And this is exactly where the power of enough reveals itself.
You can still pursue your goals,
All of them.
The difference is that your basic happiness no longer depends on specific outcomes.
There's also a growing body of research showing that the confidence and ease that come from an enough mindset actually enhance our ability to enter flow states,
Create meaningful results,
And truly flourish.
We have a choice.
We can stay blind to the magnificence of our current lives,
Or we can fully savor this cup of coffee,
This spreadsheet,
This conversation,
This moment.
Enough isn't a limitation.
It's the gateway to a calmer life,
To joy,
And to achieving your dreams.
