Ambition Is Not The Goal - Satisfaction Is.
When do we have enough?
MARK YOUR CALENDAR: Book Club Is Meeting Tuesday, June 6th!
This month we are reading fiction (we switch up month-to-month) and the book we will be reading is…And Then There Were None! I asked you all this month to help me choose our book club selection, and Agatha Christie was the clear winner.
Our Book Club discussion will take place on Tuesday, June 6th at 8:15 PM EST. Looking forward to seeing you all then!
What You Might Have Missed At Classically Abby…
Sign Up For Personal Coaching!
If you would like to have a one-on-one session regarding dating, leveling up, fashion styling, wardrobe help, makeup guidance, homemaking, navigating career choices, or anything else you’d like my advice on, I will now be offering one-hour sessions for a small extra fee. Only premium subscribers have access to these sessions, and for $75, we can have a really focused conversation about how to get you where you want to be!
If you’re interested, leave a comment down below. Once you’ve booked a session, I’ll send you a questionnaire so we can determine what you want to work on. Then we’ll schedule a time that works for you! I’m so looking forward to chatting with you all and getting to know you even better.
Quote of the Week:
“Happiness is the only thing that multiplies when you share it.” — Albert Schweitzer
Classic Style Inspo
It seems obvious, but it's amazing how versatile jeans can be! A simple T-shirt, a white button-down, a blazer, and a cardigan completely transform your look. If you're feeling stuck in a fashion future, try something a little different with your jeans!
Things I’ve Been Loving: Diaper Liners
My recommendation today is for those of you with little ones. With Mr. Baby, we found that he was leaking through his diapers at night - even the overnight ones! I did a little bit of research and found these diaper liners and they made all the difference. We simply put these inside of his diapers, and now he can sleep all night long without leaking. It’s a gamechanger!
Welcome to Classically Abby!
I'm a wife, mama, opera singer, entrepreneur, YouTuber, and your guide to becoming the classic woman you've always wanted to be! Follow me on YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter to see how! And together, let's be classic.
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Ambition Is Not The Goal - Satisfaction Is.
Happy Thursday, friends! I hope you’re doing well and having a great week. Tonight is the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, also known as Pentecost. Shavuot is the holiday where we celebrate receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai, so it’s very special! We decorate the house with flowers because Mount Sinai erupted in beautiful foliage when the Torah was given, we stay up all night studying Torah, and we only eat dairy. It’s a lesser known Jewish holiday but a lovely one. We are spending it at my parents, and it will be so nice to be with family.
In other news, my brother had his fourth baby, a boy! We will actually be meeting the little guy over Shavuot, so that’s another reason we are excited. We can’t wait to spend some time with our new nephew! I love seeing my family grow because it’s more cousins for Mr. Baby to play with. But it is funny to think that Mr. Baby is no longer the baby of the extended family!
This past weekend, we had our friends here to stay and it was SO wonderful. They’re a Christian married couple that we are close with, and they have a son exactly Mr. Baby’s age. Actually, that’s how we became friends! When I was pregnant, I accompanied my husband to a legal conference. At the conference, Jacob met another lawyer whose wife had also accompanied him - and it turned out we had the EXACT same due date and were both expecting baby boys! We even both lived in Virginia, so we could see each other after the program ended.
We ended up hitting it off and have stayed in touch ever since. It was lovely during the pregnancy to compare notes and experiences and it’s been lovely now to see our sons hit the same milestones and chat all things motherhood. But one of the things I really value about our friendship is our discussions of faith, morality, and life in general. She constantly is challenging me to grow for the better and view things from a different perspective, and I so appreciate that. And one of our discussions this past weekend was about ambition and being happy with enough.
Do you remember as a kid using the phrase, “When I’m a millionaire,” or “When I have a million dollars?” It was something you would say without thinking. In your child mind, of course there would be a day where you could afford everything you wanted, where you’d have a mansion and a fancy car and endless amounts of money.
And then you reach adulthood.
And you realize, not all of us end up millionaires. In fact, the vast majority of us don’t. And that’s okay.
We live in a consumerist culture, one that defines happiness in terms of wealth or commodities. The person with the hot tub and the walk-in closet must be happier than the person with the three-bedroom house and small kitchen. We are encouraged to constantly push to earn more. To choose a job that caps at a certain amount of money rather than a career that gives you the opportunity to climb the ladder is often scoffed at. You can always do more, be more, earn more - and that’s the goal. There is no endpoint, only constant effort to reach higher and higher.
But what if that’s wrong?
There are jobs that people do because they love them and they will only ever make a certain amount of money - and that’s wonderful. Once we wrap our heads around the idea that there’s an income we need to live and everything on top of that is gravy, we can start building lives that are fulfilling and meaningful now. We don’t constantly have to be looking at the next step, hoping to earn more and more and more.
There’s a point where we have enough, and if we are happy with what we have and what our lives look like, we’ve made it. We are in the good life. Being satisfied with what we have and accepting that might be as much as we ever earn is not a bad thing. Ambition is good when it helps us to get to where we want to go. But the question is - where do we want to go? Is there a real endpoint or is it constantly further away, the goalpost moving as we proceed forward? And isn’t that absolutely exhausting?
I’ve often struggled with the concept of constantly thinking I needed more. But talking to my friend, she said with a smile, “My husband has a job he loves and I’m loving being a stay-at-home mom. This is what our life looks like, and probably what it will look like for a long time.” What an absolutely inspiring outlook! Perhaps that’s what we should all aim for. A life of satisfaction rather than one of “ambition.” Maybe enough is all we need.
What do you all think? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
I think, at a certain point, ambition becomes the enemy of happiness. My husband and I want to have 4 children, so we'll need to work hard to make sure we can afford it, but we've talked many times about the fact that, honestly, we don't want to be rich. It sounds exhausting. What we want is to be happy and comfortable. Right now, that's the place we're at. As babies come into the picture that may change (because kids are so expensive holy moly!), but ambition doesn't need to trump happiness.