People have addictions to a lot of different things. In US culture, I think one of the strongest addictions is to progress.
This addiction takes many forms, because the definition of progress changes according to what the person thinks is lacking in their lives or what they think has the most value. Whatever it is, they want more of it, and consider that "more" as progress.
This is why the opposite concept, enough, gets such short shrift. No one can rest in enough for long, if they can attain a sense of it at all, so long as compulsory progress chases them forward at the tip of a whip.
And who is holding that whip? As children it could be anyone, but once an adult the whip is firmly in the hands of its victim. We become our own cruel drivers toward an ever elusive progress.
A Few Examples
When I look at a few of the people closest to me I see in one an addiction to shopping. Why does she shop? Because she's chasing the illusion that having another thing will help her solve some previously unsolved problem. Progress.
I am not exaggerating when I say it has gone too far. Her family room, the largest room in the whole house and only one that gets direct sun, has become a storage room. Literally. Meanwhile her husband still spends a couple hundred dollars a month on a separate storage unit he has maintained for a decade. Do the math on that. And the boxes from Amazon keep arriving each day.
Another is always getting another for-profit school educational something or other, but still makes about minimum wage after a couple decades of that. Why does she keep signing up for these money-sinks? The illusion of educational progress that will lead to financial progress.
You might think it would end after so many frustrations, but when the alternative seems to be to surrender to despair, you can see why the hope of progress would be quite appealing no matter what evidence experience has been throwing up. We only get to learn from experience to the degree we allow ourselves to correctly interpret it, and life lessons can be quite subjective to a mind that needs not to see in order to remain sane.
My third example is myself. I can sometimes catch myself shopping for no good reason, but that's not such a big one for me because I move around too much to tolerate "stuff" well. I feel burdened by physical possessions, and don't see acquiring them as progress. Perishable items are the only thing I find myself shopping for when I don't really need more of anything. Like this morning I wanted to wash my face before I was showering and realized I don't have any soap specified as for faces. So I ordered some online.
The process of shopping for it was fun, as I sought to optimize my selection, getting the highest quality for the lowest price. Much more satisfying than having to reach into the shower to get my sensitive skin shower gel out to use on my face, even though it's what I use when I'm washing my face while in the shower. Clearly a thoroughly unnecessary purchase, but satisfying. It gave me a taste of the illusion of progress. I now get to wait for it to arrive and my first time washing my face with it, when I will imagine all sorts of wonderful things being done for the health of my facial skin that of course a body wash could not deliver. LOL
Anyway, this is a rare sort of treat for me. Mostly I don't like stuff, which is why I didn't already have a facial cleanser. No, my thing is projects.
Since I was 15 years old I've been creating projects, organizations, camps, publications, websites, member programs, online trainings, masterminds, workshops, weekend retreats... all sorts of things.
In fact, some of my restlessness these days comes down to the fact that I feel like I'm in a holding pattern, waiting for my investments to rise enough for me to translate them into more expensive projects that will challenge me. The stuff I'm doing now is all stuff I've done dozens of times before, and while it may be helpful to the people receiving it from me, it's not doing anything for me. It's not making me feel a sense of progress.
I want to build or buy houses and rent them out. Why? Because I've never done that before, but have been learning about it for years. Getting to actually do it will be progress for me in terms of knowing more things at a practical level. I don't know I'll actually like doing it, but I know I'll like finding out.
I may even want to create some sort of destination retreat center. That will give me a context for endlessly trying out new ideas and having staff who help me bring my ideas to life.
Could be fun or could be a royal pain in the behind. I won't know until I try. And trying itself will feel like progress.
Right or Wrong
I honestly don't know if there is anything wrong with this addiction to progress we all seem to have.
Maybe it is good because it causes us to keep growing.
But doesn't it also cause us to keep battling a sense of dissatisfaction, and doesn't that feeling make one more prone to selfishness and less generous with strangers?
We come up with new ideas that perhaps improve people's experience of life, but don't we also consume more resources from a finite planet than are really necessary to consume?
What's the truth about progress?