Are you Enough?

Are you enough?

With the world moving fast, it can feel like we are always chasing something: happiness, peace, fulfillment, perfection. What we want can seem just around the corner or (more likely) farther away than ever but (often) achieving our goals rarely brings the satisfaction we are craving. The high of getting what we want fades quickly and we are left wondering what will finally feel like enough.

In an October 2026 article for Psychology Today, Why Achievement May Not Deliver Happiness, Jason Linder, Psy.D. LMFT has a few suggestion to help us stop “perpetuating a cycle of discontent”. He recommends finding present moment awareness. Instead of imagining being happy in the future, we connect with our body, breath and surroundings right in front of us.

He further advises redefining success so that we focus more on the internal and personal wellbeing. Also important is keeping the goal something that is reasonable and in our control to accomplish. Being grateful for what we have (again in the present moment) can also be helpful.

Are you happy enough?

In her book America the Anxious: How Our Pursuit of Happiness Is Creating a Nation of Nervous Wrecks (2016), Ruth Whippman, takes a look at America's cultural obsession with happiness.

Whippman describes how, in a culture focused on individual goals and pursuits, we can forget that joy comes foremost from our relationships. That means the first step towards happiness is shifting our focus further away from ourselves and reaching out for meaningful connections with others and our community.

She writes, “My instinct is that…happiness should be serendipitous, the by-product of a life well lived, and chasing it in a vacuum just doesn’t really work,” Whippman writes. That means we need to be honest about what we're feeling and not worry about racing towards happiness. Relinquishing our desire for control and accepting when things aren't perfect frees us to focus elsewhere and alleviates stress and anxiety.

Maybe our goal can be to have an “ok” or ”good enough” day instead of a great day: much more realistic and easier to achieve!