Enough Is Enough

It has been a short path from June's “It Is What It Is,” to this one in July, “Enough is Enough.” Many of you sent me some very playful spins on June's theme. Like, “It ain’t what it ain’t,” “It will be what it will be,” “It can be what it can be,” etc. And one of my favorites was “Enough is Enough.”

Too often, we say, “enough is enough,” to express our impatience and exasperation at something. As a child, you may have heard this from your parents. Maybe you've even said it to your own children. As in, “Enough is enough! I've heard that from you too often.”

But “enough” can mean to be satisfied and feel sufficient. In the book, The Soul of Money, Lynn Twist says that what we choose to appreciate appreciates. That we must look at what's working and where we have sufficiency rather than at what is not working and where we are lacking or experiencing scarcity. When we focus on where we have enough, we have the ability to contribute in those areas. And through contribution, we begin to appreciate even more. And if what we appreciate appreciates, then we've strengthened our feeling of enough.

In the condition of scarcity, when enough is not enough no matter how much we have, we hoard and measure our stockpile. We become competitive. When we feel money or anything else we desire (love, for instance) is scarce, we never have enough no matter how much more we accumulate.

When we feel sufficiency, when enough truly is enough, we collaborate with others because what we desire moves in and out of our life naturally. There is enough for us; there is enough for everyone. We have the ability and freedom to nurture others and ourselves. When we appreciate the enough-ness in our lives, our enough-ness appreciates.

"Appreciation is the beating heart of sufficiency." ~Lynn Twist