The Recipe for Contentment

Contentment is really something I struggle with; maybe not as much that I worry about things as I am not satisfied with what I have. I recently came to the humbling realization that I face a lot of things in my life with the attitude "I could do better." In ever sense of the phrase, that's way messed up and damaging. So, as I'm revamping that thought pattern, I'm looking into contentment and how to live in it. I don't know if this is a common struggle, or if I'm just a messed up perfectionist, but at any rate I wanted to share what I found in this book I just started called "Calm My Anxious Heart" by Linda Dillow. When I'm looking for how I should approach life I like it to be spelled out for me in step by step guidelines. I know that there are inherent dangers to this approach, but it's still what I look for, and in the first few pages of this book the author quoted another woman as to the recipe for contentment, as follows:
~Never allow yourself to complain about anything-not even the weather.
~Never picture yourself in any other circumstances or someplace else.
~Never compare your lot with another's.
~Never allow yourself to wish this or that had been otherwise.
~Never dwell on tomorrow-remember that it is God's, not ours.
It's a tall order, and I'm pretty sure I fail about every hour. :P But something I'm going to be dwelling on these next few days. One part of it that really gets me is that every single part of this recipe is a choice that I can make; nothing is left dependent on what others might do or what circumstances might change it is all up to me being in control of my emotions and choices. I like to be in control. :) It also made me recall what I was just reading in "Screwtape" concerning how God wants us to live in the present and Satan finds us most useful when we focus on the future (see quote on upper right side). Also, Lewis (Screwtape) writes, "nearly all vices are rooted in the future. Gratitude looks to the past and love to the present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead." Fascinating and humbling.