Security Is a Misnomer

Security Is a Misnomer We are but dogs, leashed by fear, thrashing in the collars of our own obligations. People often hang on to thingsâ€"jobs, relationships, material possessionsâ€"in an effort to feel secure. Unfortunately, many of the things we cling to in search of security, actually drain the satisfaction from our lives, leaving us discontented and overwhelmed. We hold on to jobs we dislike because we believe theres security in a paycheck. We stay in shitty relationships because we think theres security in not being alone. We hold on to stuff we dont need, just in case we might need it down the road in some nonexistent, more secure future. But if such accruements are flooding your life with discontent, they are not secure. In fact, the opposite is true. Discontent is uncertainty. And uncertainty is insecurity. Hence, by definition, if you are not happy with your situation, no matter how comfortable it is, then you wont ever feel secure. Take, for example, us: Joshua and Ryan. We both embraced the ostensible security of prestigious careers and of all the cold trappings of our entropic consumer culture. The super-sized houses. The steady paychecks. The pacifying material possessions. Wed purchased all the purchases, accumulated all the accumulations, and achieved all the achievements that were supposed to make us feel secure. So why didnt we experience real security? Why were we glazed with discontent and stress and depression? Because we had more to lose. Wed constructed well-decorated walls that we were terrified to tear down, becoming prisoners of our own consumption. Our lifestyles, equipped with a laundry list of unquestioned desires, anchored us to our self-built burdens. We thought we knew what we wanted, but we didnt know why we wanted it. It turned out our paychecks made us feel less secure, afraid wed be deprived of the income wed grown accustomed to and the lifestyles wed blindly coveted. And our material possessions exposed countless twinges of insecurity, leaving us frightened that wed suffer loss of our personal property or that someone would take it from us. So we clutched tighter onto these security blankets. But you see, its not the security blanket that ensures a persons security. People latch on to security blankets because theres a deeper fear lingering at the ragged edges of a discontented reality; theres something else were afraid of. The fear of loss. Were afraid of losing love or respect or comfort. Its this fear that keeps us tied to mediocrity. Were willing to sacrifice growth and purpose and meaning in our lives, just to hold on to our pacifiers, all the while searching all the wrong places for security, misguidedly programming ourselves to believe theres a strange kind of certainty within uncertainty. But the more we amass, the more we need our stockpile, and then the more uncertain we feel. Needing more will always lead to a pall of uncertainty and insecurity. Life isnt meant to be completely safe. Real security, however, is found inside us, in consistent personal growth, not in a reliance on growing external factors. Once we extinguish our outside requirements for the things that wont ever make us truly secureâ€"a fat paycheck, a sybaritic relation, a shiny new widgetâ€"we can shepherd our focus toward whats going on inside us, no longer worshiping the things around us. Sure, we all need a particular level of external security to function: food, water, shelter, clothes, health, personal safety,  positive relationships. But if we jettison lifes superfluous excess, we can find infinite security within ourselves. Security blanket or no, we can be absolutely secure alone in an empty room. Subscribe to The Minimalists via email.