Who Are The Joneses Anyway?
Sometimes we get envious of something, someone or some situation that doesn’t appear to be within our reach. It is not a secret that many of us try to compete at work and on our blocks with someone else who appears to be doing better than we are at the moment. Why do we try to keep up with these people? And are they really named Jones?
Various studies show that Americans are stressed by money. We often overspend and then get buyers remorse. A study by financial planning firm Edward Jones shows more than half of us peek at our friends and question how they can afford their lifestyles. You know, these are the people with expensive, cars in the driveway. We start crafting stories in our mind. These are stories like; they must be the ones with a new, big house and no real furniture inside. We have never been invited into their home, don’t know their life story and yet we allow pressures to influence what we think of them. Then we try to keep up. Keep up with what? And the pressures aren’t limited to our money. Many of us compare ourselves to other parents, spouses and co-workers. Now we compare the number of friends we have and how perfect our social media lives look to the outside world. Why are we stressing so much over so little?
A life coach who has become a friend, Bob Karcher wrote a book with his wife Susan, Who Are The Joneses Anyway? Bob And Susan start off by using their own life story to relate to people whom often feel they are on a hamster wheel in life. They run in place to make money, buy stuff, get bad spending habits and eventually can come to question why they aren’t happy. But keeping up isn’t just related to money. Here are a few questions. See where your heart is right now.
Is your yardstick for measuring “success in life” based on how much expensive stuff you have, how many accomplishments you have made or how many people like you? Do you try to keep up with the Joneses while not really knowing the other their story? This is all be fleeting stuff and it takes so much energy. I am going to resolve today to put envy aside and jump off that hamster wheel. Are you with me?