When We Learn to Be Content in The Moment, Success Comes Easier

When you learn to be satisfied with where you are, you position yourself for future success.

I seriously used to wonder if cats and dogs smiled until I came in the back door one day from a particularly hard and messy run through one of our local canyons.

I was wet, I felt like total crud, and I just wanted to get into the hot shower so that I could feel like a normal human being again (well as normal as is possible for me to get).

My wife was over at her sister’s; so, as I came in the backdoor and started peeling off the really wet, stinky layers of clothing, my awesome cat walked up to me just talking away in the way that only Yikma is capable of talking.

I put a little bit of food in her bowl, thinking this would quiet her, but she just kept walking beside me, talking the whole way. I literally got myself into the shower, and there she sat outside the shower still talking to me. I finished my shower, and she was still talking to me. I walked through the house opening up the closet doors thinking her sister, Yakshi, had gotten locked in a closet again.

Nope; there Yakshi was in her familiar spot, a lump under the covers on our bed.

Yikma was still talking away, following me all over the house. So finally, I got a nice cold drink in my hand, some chips, and comfortable clothes, and I headed to my chair to prop my feet up and relax a little.

This whole time Yikma was still following me, talking the whole time.

As I sat down, I barely got a blanket over my legs, and Yikma leaped into my lap. She was purring and talking the whole way.

As I petted her, I looked down to see her face, and she had this huge smile, or at least it looked like a smile, on her face.

She was just beaming at me, and I thought, “so that is what it looks like to be content”. With my hand slowly stroking her beautiful fur, Yikma lay down in my lap, with that smile still planted on her face, and fell fast asleep.

And the pain in my ankles and knees, the sore spot on my shoulder where I whacked a tree branch — they all just sort of faded away as I looked down at my happy kitty with her smile on her face.

Everything broken in my life began to just feel better simply because of a smile.

Two things hit me as I sat in my chair, content with a good solid mountain trail run under my belt in wintertime and a smiling kitty on my lap.

The Atmosphere Changing Gesture Almost Nobody Thinks About

The first thing that hit me was whether a smile really could change the atmosphere in a room.

Could a smile take away pain and discomfort and bring that elusive characteristic of contentment?

There are all sorts of wisdom quotes, but one really struck me that day.

“When a king’s face brightens, it means life; his favor is like a rain cloud in spring.”

As I dwelt on these words, I began to realize that a smile is one of the most amazing things we can offer other people.

A smile is one of the reasons I prefer face-to-face meetings to phone calls and email. With a smile I can put somebody, upset with an order not delivered on time, at ease.

I can take somebody bickering over price and help them to come to my understanding of the project and see the value that I offer because of my experience that is worth far more than any low-ball bid could ever deliver.

With a smile, I can take very grouchy people and get them to laugh, and a possible acrimonious conversation is turned into a productive conversation.

I find that when I am walking down a street and offer somebody, looking down on their luck, a smile and a kind word that maybe, just maybe, I encourage them.

I find that when my wife and I are having a disagreement that if I smile and reach out to her with gentleness we can come to an understanding, if not an agreement.

Finding Contentment in the Small Things

The other thing I learned that day from my kitty’s beautiful smile was what contentment really means. Contentment is something I seek far more than riches because it is more fulfilling.

There is a New Testament quote by Paul that always intrigues me. Paul is thanking the people of Phillipi for their support and he says, “I have learned to be satisfied in any circumstance.”

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines satisfied as “pleased or content with what has been experienced or received.”

See all it took to make my kitty content was for me to sit down and let her climb in my lap for a little bit of time being petted and loved on.

All it takes for me to be content is to be able to put aside my climbing to the top of the mountain in my profession, school, or whatever endurance race I happen to be running. When I climb down from my striving and climb into a place of peace, I find I have the capacity to overcome anything I’m facing.

Sometimes this may make me look like I am a “special kind of crazy person” because I’m not out trying to take the world by storm.

Perhaps though, that is something this world is really looking for.

Contentment May Look Crazy, But It Just May Be What Success Looks Like

The world is looking for a “special kind of crazy” person, and you and I desperately need to be that “special kind of crazy” person because we have something everybody wants.

Just like all my kitty needed to be able to turn her talking into a content smile was for me to take a little of my precious time and give it to her with no judgment, no huffy sigh, no indication that my time was precious and I needed to be someplace else.

She needed my focus on her, just on her.

Then she shared with me her beautiful smile and her content little heart, and it filled my heart with the same, and I was able to smile back at her and give her the time she needed.

Now it is up to you to be that kitty (or that puppy) waiting to just have the time to snuggle with their human, the time to curl up and just be content.

There are people that are going to be in your path today, and they need your smile, that one and only crooked little curl up of the lip that says, “I accept you just the way you are, and you don’t have to be anything special or do anything for me”.

Can you be that “special kind of crazy” today? Can you give somebody a smile just because of the inexpressible joy that fills you from a reservoir that will never run out?

I know there are days when you don’t “feel” like smiling but try it anyway. There are days when you are just frustrated, nothing is going right, you can’t find your car keys, and your boss just gave you an impossible deadline to meet.

Can you overcome those difficulties with a Job-type smile? After all, you haven’t just lost your entire family, your entire wealth, your entire health because Satan wants to test your faith, have you?

I have faith that you can because I have faith that inside of you is a king just waiting to let the light of your faith shine on the people around you so they can know what life is all about.

Live an ultra-life by being a “special kind of crazy” today, and let the light of your face shine all over the people in your life today.

I still don’t know if cats and dogs really smile, but I do know that there is a smile waiting to come out of your faith and rain down on everybody around you.

So, go out and be that “special kind of crazy” today.

You just may find the success you’ve been so desperately looking for.