When my Life is Perfect.

I find that I'm asking myself one question quite a bit lately. The question takes the form of, will my life be better if ... ? What fills in the blank can be a product, such as a new laptop computer, an article of clothing or a relationship.

Do I need that jacket, when I have two or three of them at home. Yes, it will look better on me than the ones I have, but outside of that momentary feeling of satisfaction, will my life be better? Very often the answer is obvious, easy and more often than not the answer is no.

What I'm doing is resisting the impulse to make decisions based on short term gratification versus a thoughtful decision. The other trick I've heard to assist in evaluating a purchase decision is to figure out how long you have to work to earn the money to enjoy the purchase. It's one thing to spend money, it's another thing to think of having to work a number of hours to earn the money to do it.

We are all confronted with relationships that are hard to maintain because of time and distance. In relationships the thought process is more complex to be sure, but often you find that you are expending a lot of time and effort to maintain a relationship with people that aren't willing to do the same for you. There can be reasons for the unbalance, but for the most part the answer will be obvious. If to many promises to keep in touch that go broken, it can tell you that the person is well intentioned in the promise, but not sufficiently motivated to follow up. And it may be that getting together once and a great while to catch up is all you can expect and that in itself might be reason enough to hang on. Realizing the boundaries of your relationships can go a long way to relieve the stress of spinning your wheels in a situation that is never going to change regardless of your best intentions and efforts.

Will my life be better? And what is the cost? Two good questions to ask if you want to ... well, make your life better.