Maximizing what you've got

Here’s an ironic oddity: our culture is organized around people making the most out of their money and time.

We (try to) maximize everything—from the car we drive to the clothes we wear, to the people we call friends.

Everyone, it seems, wants the best. And because we’re always comparing what we have to what our friends and family and colleagues have and expect us to have, we work overtime (literally, and figuratively) to ensure that we have the best.

Of course, 'having the best' is not the same as making the best out of what you’ve got. In fact, even if you have the best—the best house, the best car, the best plot of land—there’s no guarantee you’ll make the most out of that experience.

So really, you have two choices:

You can do your best to come out ahead—to have the best in every category (or at least the one’s you value).

Or, (and it’s a very big or) you can work just as hard to maximize what you already have. Not ‘maximize’ as in, ‘getting the best,’ or ‘making the absolute best choice’—but in making the best out of what you’ve got, and in the way things turn out.

It turns out that maximizing what you have, in every category, is a far better way to make the most of a life, than maxing out everything until you’re jaded, pompous, or broke.