“You could enjoy this very moment all the things you are praying to reach by taking the long way around – if you’d stop depriving yourself of them.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.

If you are seeking happiness, fame and fortune, or security, to what extent do you have them already right now? Our emotional-thinking brain sees things in all-or-nothing terms: if you are striving and yearning for happiness, does that mean you don’t have happiness now?

Here’s a test: ask yourself what would have to change right now to make you feel less happy, less fortunate, and less secure? Complete this sentence with each aspect you consider…”It could be worse if…”. This perspective-taking might help you realise that what you need you already have…more or less.