Witnessed up close

First World Problems

be kitschig blog on first world problems

So, Mr. David Hasselhoff is really in my bad books at the moment. Last year, I missed out on a cheap ticket for the Hoff and this year when he is touring, we’ve already booked a holiday.

It hardly gets more first world problems than this.

While we’re at it, school holidays are really not great for blogging (or getting anything done, for that matter), then you have to deal with people’s opinions or paperwork. This new laptop is painfully slow and last month I broke a nail trying to squeeze into that damn shapewear.

Just before you tumble into a spiral of NOT FAIR!, you watch the news and feel strangely awkward. After all, we had booked a holiday to soak up some sun for fall ages ago, just to be thrifty. At least, I did get a cheap laptop while my dear friend was dying slowly and people will think what they want to think and I’m pretty sure I will do that tax return. Eventually. Erm.

The world doesn’t stop turning and there will always be things that are highly irritating. Like, why do the store detectives of this world follow me on a weekly basis, why does Granny at the grocery store feels entitled to cut the line (I’m sure you’re not running late for work lady) and where is that damn cellphone? While we cannot change the world, we can certainly work on our attitude. Many moons ago, I started the no complaining challenge. It’s pretty obvious how lasting that effect was, isn’t it?

How much do we really need?

The American psychologist Abraham Maslow created a hierarchy of needs. Many may be familiar with his pyramid. At the base, we find

  • physiological needs followed by
  • the need for safety

Once these basic needs for food, shelter or water as well as for health, personal security and emotional security are being fulfilled, people long for different things.

On the third level of Maslow’s pyramid we find the

  • need for belonging.

No man is an island and people have the need for intimacy, friendship or family.

Coco Chanel Quote bekitschig

The last levels are the needs for

  • self-esteem
  • self-actualization and
  • transcendence; philosophically or religiously

While this model is simplified, it provides a good indication of what makes people actually tick. In reality, this works much more in waves and overlapping, rather than a pyramid.

Are we just wired to want more?

Probably. Maslow believed, if you can do it, you should.

If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.

You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety.

Maslow left out material needs altogether. For example, you need a shelter but this shelter doesn’t need to be twice the size of your neighbors’. Next time you look at that closet that is full of nothing to wear or that job that is not awesome 100%, be grateful for even having problems like that.

Keep your eyes open for what really matters. Focus on your family and your goals in life. There are many people in this world who do not even have safe access to drinking water or education. So next time you are overrun by your first world problems, maybe take a deep breath and get real.

What are your first world problems?

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24 thoughts on “First World Problems”

  1. Pingback: Anybody can complain - BE KITSCHIG

  2. This post was sort of eye-opening, a wake up call, if you will! I especially liked the bit about your no complaining challenge. This might be something I need to try, though I can’t say how long it will last! I will say that though this was an enjoyable read, it was a tad difficult to follow at times, but that just me. Otherwise I loved the atmosphere and the way you pulled me in with the post. Thank you for sharing!

    1. Thank you for your feedback! I am glad you enjoyed it and I have been told before, I tent to jump around a bit in my posts (which is hard to see while you know what you’re talking about … Always a nice thing to go back to old blog posts later and fine tune a bit) Thank you

  3. Wow, very insightful and informative post! But you’re right. It seems like we’re caught up in the rat race of what society portrays as true happiness. But once we get out of the mentally, that’s when the happiness begins.

    1. As long as it is there in the morning … Those few days a year where coffee isn’t puts this place in a royal mood …

    2. Rumors go, American women are so full of plastic that they cannot tell anymore if breastfeeding is healthy. That might not be a first world problem… it’s horrific

  7. Seriously it would probably be the mornings I don’t have coffee ready cause I was tired the night before and didn’t set the coffee pot. And I’m working very hard to instill in my kids to grateful for everything-cause I’m the grand scheme of it all, there’s people dying because they don’t have food to eat, while you complain over meatloaf.

    1. You have a coffee pot to set? I am one step behind you here. Worst thing is waking up and realizing, there are no coffee beans

  8. I like the non-complaining challenge very much 👍, but actually the rude car-drivers with their stupid BMWs here in Lower Bavaria are driving me really crazy. 🤬 They remind me every day to Rainer Werner Fassbenders famous film “Jagdszenen in Niederbayern” 😱 So tomorrow escaping to Czech Republic 🙂

    2. Unfortunately, BMW or Audi drivers seem to come with inbuilt way (Vorfahrt). Last week I nearly got run over on my bike and the car was so posh, it didn’t even have a name. Pontiac? Enjoy your holidays!

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