Why do so many of us keep chasing more… yet still feel restless, overwhelmed, and unsatisfied?

In this fourth episode of Joy Camp Summer, Kristin explores a powerful question: What if more isn’t actually what your soul needs?

We live in a culture that constantly tells us we need more. More success. More money. More productivity. More stuff. But often, the pursuit of more leaves us exhausted and disconnected from the joy God wants us to experience right now.

In this episode, Kristin shares why a simpler, more intentional life may be the pathway back to peace, joy, and deeper fulfillment. She explores the powerful shift from accumulation to contribution and why true joy often grows when we focus less on striving and more on connection, gratitude, generosity, and purpose.

If you’ve been feeling stretched thin, stuck in comparison, or caught in the cycle of always wanting more, this episode will help you slow down and refocus on what matters most.

Joy often grows when we stop chasing more and start fully living the life already in front of us.

Takeaways

• Chasing more does not automatically lead to greater happiness or fulfillment.
• Simplicity often creates more peace, margin, and joy.
• True wealth is found in connection, contribution, and meaningful relationships.
• Gratitude helps break the cycle of striving and comparison.
• A joyful life requires intentional choices about what deserves your time and attention.
• Living with purpose brings deeper satisfaction than accumulating possessions or achievements.
• Joy increases when we appreciate what God has already placed in our lives.

Join us for Joy Camp Summer here - https://kristinfitch.com/joy

Grab the Rewire Your Mind: From Negativity to Joy- download here.

Grab the Joy Rising- Daily Gratitude & Joy Journal here.

Download My Free Joyful Living Devotional: https://kristinfitch.com/devotional

Ready to take your first step towards a more joyful, faith-filled life? Download our Reignite Your Passion Workbook and start living with purpose today!

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Is it possible that a simpler life is where we find the most joy?

Today we're going to talk about what are we choosing and what are we chasing and how flipping that script can change everything in our lives and it can allow us to welcome in more joy and peace.

Welcome to Faith Filled Living, the podcast for women who want to find joy again, grow closer to God, and rediscover the woman he created you to be.

I'm your host, Kristin Fitch.

Each week you'll find encouragement, honest conversations, biblical perspective, and practical tools to help you experience more joy, purpose and peace in everyday life.

Because the woman God created you to be is still there.

And it's never too late to come alive to the life he created you to live.

Okay, before we dive into today's episode, if you aren't already getting my weekly emails, head over to KristinFitch.com and sign up.

You can grab a free workbook from my workbooks page.

I have a Joyful living Devotionals.

I have a Reignite your passion workbook, I have a Rewire your mind and lots of other great freebies for you.

Also, if you're not already getting my emails, then go to KristinFitch.com joy and sign up so that you'll get my Joy Camp summer emails for the next couple weeks.

Because I would love for you to be part of my bigger community and be encouraged in your inbox as well.

All right, so let's dive right in.

So as I was thinking about this week's joycamp summer episode, you know, one thing that spoke to me was something that Vex King said.

And he says we spend so much life chasing more.

More money, more recognition, more things to prove we've made it.

Yet life begins and ends the same way, empty handed.

The houses, the cars, the bags and clothes all stay behind.

What travels with you is intangible.

The love you gave, the peace you cultivated, the way you touch the lives of others.

And he goes on to say the real measure of a life well lived isn't in accumulation, but in contribution.

He says they'll remember how you loved, the impact you had, and the way you were a blessing in other people's lives.

Real wealth isn't measured in possessions.

It's etched in the heart.

And he says the truly wealthy aren't those with overflowing bank accounts, but those with overflowing hearts.

The ones who have found that true joy comes from comes not from accumulation, but from appreciation.

Not from being admired, but from being at peace.

Not from constant striving, but from presence and I want to share with you an old.

Let's see.

I don't know.

If you just call it like a. I'm going to find it here real quick.

What would you call this?

An old story, I guess, that's been shared in different cultures.

The one I'm going to share with you is, I think, a Brazilian story.

But it's basically.

And you may have heard the story before, it's definitely one I've heard many times.

But it's the fisherman and the businessman.

But it speaks to the heart of how do we tap into more joy and how do we live a life of appreciation and how do we live a life of choosing a simpler life, Choosing to focus on the things and filling our life with things that matter, instead of chasing accumulation or accolades or four more things.

Okay, so I'm going to read you the story.

That's.

Or most of it, at least.

So it basically says there once was a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village.

As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore, having caught quite a few big fish.

The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, how long does it take you to catch so many fish?

The fisherman replied, oh, just a short while.

Then why don't you stay longer at sea and catch even more?

The businessman was astonished.

This is enough to feed my whole family.

The fisherman said.

The businessman then asked, so what do you do for the rest of the day?

The fisherman replied, well, I usually wake up early in the morning.

I go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids.

In the afternoon, I take a nap with my wife.

In evening comes, I join my buddies in the village for a drink.

We play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night.

The businessman offered a suggestion to the fisherman.

I'm a PhD in business management.

I could help you become a more successful person.

From now on, you should spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fish as possible.

When you've saved enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fish.

Soon you'll be able to afford to buy more boats.

Set up your own company and your own production plant for canned food and distribution network.

By then you'll have moved out of this village and into Sao Paulo, where you can set up headquarters to manage your other branches.

The fisherman continues.

And after that.

The businessman laughs heartily.

After that, you can live like a king in your own house.

And when the time is right, you can go public and float your shares in the Stock exchange.

And you will be rich?

The fisherman asks.

And after that?

The businessman says, after that, you can finally retire.

You can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning, catch a few fish, then return home to play with your kids, have a nice afternoon nap with your wife.

When evening comes, you can join your buddies for a drink, play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night.

The fisherman was puzzled.

Isn't that what I'm doing now?

I think that speaks so much to do we have joy and peace in our life?

Are we creating a life that is built on the things that matter to us and that are important to us?

In other words, is our.

Do we have a solid foundation?

Right?

And if we're somebody of faith, does the solid foundation start with God and his Word, right, in Christ?

And if that's true, what are the things that truly matter in your life?

What are your values?

What are your priorities?

But if we build our life on those things, then we'll live more like the fisherman, enjoying life and having what we need, but not trying to accumulate more or gain more titles or money just because we feel like that's, you know, that shows a status that we've reached.

So I'm not saying we shouldn't have things and we shouldn't have nice things or we shouldn't make good money.

What I'm saying is, are we chasing more, but more things that don't don't go with us right after we've lived this life, or are we choosing more contribution?

Are we choosing more connection more?

Are we choosing to appreciate everything that's already here in front of us and in our life?

What's already there in your life?

What do you already have that maybe someone else is praying for?

Someone else wishes they already had?

And yet we're taking it for granted because so often we don't see all the richness that we already have in our lives, the people close to us.

Maybe, you know, we have a home, maybe we'd like a bigger home.

But it's, you know, if we're very fortunate, it may be we have, you know, all the things we need.

We have the clothes, we have the food.

We, most of us are not worrying about if we have enough money to put food on the table.

Now if you are in that case, once again, we can quickly, right?

God moves quickly sometimes, and he can change our situation so fast sometimes.

And if you're somebody that's, like, focused, I mean, worrying about that, then I would follow on Instagram or online.

It's Bob Lotto Tick.

And it's.

The account's called Seed Time.

But he talks all about biblical finances.

And honestly, it's a really powerful account.

And I definitely encourage you if that's an area where you're looking for more financial blessings.

But anyways, so the, the story I shared with you is.

The point is, what are we chasing?

Like I said, and I think it's something you need to ask yourself, like, what are you going after?

And then are we living a life of when I blank, I will be happy.

When I blank, I will be more joyful.

When I'm blank, I will be more content.

Because as the Bible tells us, right, Paul tells us when he's talking to, I think, the Ephesian churches, that he will be content in all circumstances because he's.

He's lived both ways.

And I think he's writing it from jail, if I'm not mistaken.

I'm trying to recall off the top of my head, but even there, he was content.

Now, is that what he wants of his circumstances?

I'm sure it is not.

But even there, he has purpose.

He is still writing to the churches.

Even there, he can do the work that God's calling him into.

So I think most of us don't realize that we have it better than we realize, but we're so focused on tomorrow or next month or next year or gaining something that we're missing what's right in front of us.

We're missing the moments, we're missing the memories.

And, you know, another thing that I want to share is I recently heard that Senator Ben.

Ben Sass, or Sassy, I'm not sure how you say his name.

He was the senator from Nebraska.

He was also, I think, the president of a college or university in Florida, but he has stage four cancer.

And he said that he's dying.

And the way he's spending the time he has left is he's created a podcast called Not Dead yet.

And he's interviewing people and he's sharing the wisdom that he's gained from God.

And he's, you know, and he's speaking it.

He wants to share that with people.

But that is what we're talking about, right?

He, until the end, is going to contribute as greatly as he possibly can.

So one that brings so much more joy to our lives.

It lets us know that what we're doing matters.

And of course, what we're doing can just be within our own walls of our home or the work we're doing in whatever job we're going to it doesn't have to be big or splashy or a podcast.

But that is just an example of what are we doing today to make a difference.

What are we doing today that will make a difference?

Even if we won't see it come to.

We won't see the fruit.

Meaning stuff we're doing today can impact generations moving forward, right?

They can.

For instance, I was at a concert a couple weeks ago.

I was.

I was going to the Jelly Roll concert.

I like his story, right?

He's had a hard and difficult and, I guess, colorful past.

And he's.

He became a Christian and he supports people and he's, you know, it's like a.

It's one of those stories, right?

He found Christ.

But what I thought was interesting, he shared that he has broken some of the generational patterns, some of the generational trauma that was going on in his family, right?

He did the work.

He did the therapy to do that, to not act the same way or have the same hardships or addiction that went on for, you know, generations before him.

And so this is the kind of thing I'm talking about.

When we make a change, when we choose to focus on what matters and we choose to do the work to get better, when we put what we're doing today, it'll change the path of future generations, right?

It'll change the path for our children or their children and so on.

Or it'll change the path of someone else, right?

That we mentored or that we encouraged or whatever it might be.

So what I'm saying is what we do matters.

And when we focus on those things, everything changes because we start appreciating what we already have.

We start being grateful for what we already have.

And then we show up and we continue to say, like, I'm not going to chase more.

I'm going to choose more contribution and connection.

And I've noticed this pattern with some of my friends.

So once we are over 40, you know, all my friends, for the most part, and I'm older than that, but a lot of them started saying, you know, when I was younger, I was striving, right?

I wanted to make more money or I wanted to get like the next.

I wanted to move up in my career.

But they hit a point where they said, no, you know what I want, I want to enjoy my life.

I want to have the freedom of time.

I want to not feel rushed and stressed.

So some people get to that point a lot sooner, actually, I've noticed a lot of young people, you know, so the 17 to 20, young 20s have been saying to their parents lately, some of my friends, kids, you know, like, I don't want a 9 to 5 job.

You know, I want a job that has more flexibility.

And I absolutely get that because I feel the same way.

I felt that way for a long time.

And so I've done different work and I've had my own things off and on that have allowed me to do that.

Now, yes, sometimes I could have gone and gotten a different corporate type job and made more money, right.

In certain seasons, but I've just kind of navigated through it.

But I can tell you that the, the best seasons have been the ones where I did some work, I did some ministry, but I also had the flexibility or freedom in my day to garden, right, to be here for my kids, even as they're in college, you know, I'm here, I can make dinner, things like that.

We're all on a different path, but we find and tap into more of our joy when we're looking for it, when we're grateful, when we are in a place of appreciation, and when we're not focused just on us focused on being generous.

And I thought this was interesting.

So the, the account I share with you earlier, Bob Lautic of Seed Time, he's talking about income or, I'm sorry, he's talking about giving.

And he explains that there's a joy factor that people don't always consider when, when we're talking about being generous or giving, right?

Tithing and things like that.

And he explains that it's joy, not income, is the true currency of generosity.

He says your income level doesn't determine your joy level, but your joy level absolutely determines your generosity level.

And what he's talking about is even in the Bible they give examples that even the church that had the least, even the people that had the least to give, right?

And some of the examples, they gave what they had, but they did it from a place of joy, right?

Like they, they wanted to contribute, they wanted to particip with God.

But when you give from that place and not from a place of obligation, specifically your, the joy, right?

Your joy level determines your generosity.

Think about it.

When you've bought something for somebody, and I know this is different than like tithing or biblical giving, but when you bought something for somebody, it wasn't for a birthday, it wasn't for Christmas or anything else.

You just saw something, you thought, oh my gosh, this is perfect for my friend.

It could have been a book, it could have been just a Lovely gift that you bought them, but you feel so good about giving it to them because it was from a generous place.

It is from a joyful place that you gave it to him.

The, the dollar amount did not matter.

That's the type of generous giving we're talking about.

It's because God, you know, he says in scripture he wants a.

A joyful giver.

That is what he wants.

He wants our heart right first before we fill in the blank, before we serve, before we give, before we love, before we show up in wherever we've been stationed by Him.

And so I think it's so important.

I think we forget that joyful is one.

A fruit of the spirit as a Christian, but also without that, people are not going to look at us and think you live differently because the rest of the world is not always does not live that way, right?

It's so easy.

We let our circumstances affect and impact us.

A joyful heart is good for our spirit, but it's also good for our body.

Because it's when we come from that place that everything else flows, right?

And it's when we, when we're down and defeated and crushed and we haven't renewed ourselves in God Word, we haven't renewed ourselves in being grateful for what we have.

Being grateful for where we are, being grateful for what's right in front of us.

Nothing else flows through that, right?

In other words, we're.

We're turning off that flow of God and of the Holy Spirit where we are not being a joyful giver.

We are not being a kind and loving servant when we are crushed, right?

If our spirit's crushed, it's really hard to pour into other people if we're not renewed and refilled.

And so it's just, you know, this is more important than just the idea of like, joy, because now people have differing opinions about this.

But happiness can happen, you know, in the moments or when circumstances are good, if you will.

But joy is that overflowing, outpouring, right?

It's the, it's the feeling that comes about and comes forth and that we can continue to have regardless of what's going on around us.

Now, it doesn't mean that we're joyful about everything happening.

What it means is we can have a joyful heart, we can have a joyful spirit.

We can have a grateful heart, a grateful Spirit, we can be grateful for the person walking beside us in our grief, the person walking beside us in our loss, person walking beside, about beside us when we hear or when something hard happens to us.

And of course, God is there with us through it all.

But it's when we start shifting our focus from chasing more to choosing that contribution like I talked about.

So if you want to live a more joy centered life, if you want to experience more joy this summer, and if you want to experience more peace and more calm in your day that feels lighter and more joyful, you've got to start with changing your thoughts and what you spend your time and energy thinking about and paying attention to.

Because what we focus on and feed will grow.

So the first question is, what are you choosing to feed?

What are you chasing and wanting more of?

And write that down.

The next is, what would a life of more contribution?

What would a life that was filled with the things that matter to you look like?

And you may already be hitting that mark, or you may, you may have some of those things, but you'd really like to add in more or more time for some of those things.

And just to be clear, I'm not saying that you shouldn't have goals and you shouldn't go after your dreams.

You 100% should.

We just don't want to be like the businessman where we strive for so much that we miss today.

Right?

In other words, we want to be present and we want to experience all the gifts and the delight that God's designed and built into the day, that he's built into the year, the month.

Right?

And sometimes we can miss those when we're chasing the things the world tells us matter most.

Because often we don't need a bigger house, we don't need a newer car.

And once again, I'm not saying you can't want those things.

There's actually, I mean, I have a dream to have a house on the water and maybe even a separate building one day that I could host retreats and events at.

Right?

So there's nothing wrong with that.

But I'm not letting the dream, and I'm not letting the dream stop me from being joyful and grateful right now in the life that I have today.

I live in a house.

I've been here for, gosh, 28 years in this house.

There's so many things I don't like about it, but when I focus on those things, I find myself much less satisfied.

But when I shift my thoughts to the things that I so appreciate about what we have right now.

Everything shifts in my day.

Everything shifts in the way I show up in my.

My house and I show up, you know, in my.

In my day.

So once again, that's what I'm talking about.

Shifting your.

What you're thinking about.

It's even the same with our relationships or our work.

When we get.

When we're begrudging or when we focus on.

Right.

The chipped paint, if you will, we'll just use that as an example of the house.

We can miss that our house is strong and it provides us safe spaces and quiet and refuge from the busyness of life.

Or it allows us time to connect with our family or get quiet with God, or it allows us to invite over people into our home and just be generous and show them hospitality.

So if we focus on the good and we let go of that, there's nail holes on the wall.

We start being in that space of appreciation and gratitude, and that is where you want to be.

It's harder for some of us than others, and it's harder if we haven't been in that practice.

But I promise, over time, it's worth it.

And like I said, yes, I, one day I want, you know, a different property.

I've been here a long time and we've never moved.

And as much as I want a different yard, I so appreciate the yard I have right now.

I have 10 places where I have a vegetable and herb gardens, like raised beds.

I have, you know, a line of green trees on the outside.

You know, we have different areas to sit.

But the back of my property does back up to a street.

And so sometimes it can be noisy right.

When there's a lot of traffic or just really big vehicles.

So, yes, there's things I don't love about it, but there's way more things I do love about it in the season that I'm in right now.

And so this is the whole idea of when we shift our script, when we shift what we focus on, we start living in that place that will allow us to bring forth and have more joy.

Something I like that Pastor Jason Laird shares is where are you looking for your validation?

Right.

Which is kind of like, what are we.

What are we chasing?

What are we wanting more of?

And he says, as humans, we tend to live at the extremes, hustle or lazy.

But he says, of course it's somewhere in the middle.

But there's a culture of restlessness within us.

And he said, a busy person can't hear from God, or it's hard to hear the voice of God.

And he says we work hard to fill the sense of approval, accomplishment or accumulation.

And of course that isn't where we're going to live a life that matters to us.

And he says the rhythm of rest is woven into the fabric of creation.

And then I wanted to share with you something that I had written it maybe two years ago and it's this.

We cannot give our best if we do not rest.

Many of us grew up believing we must accomplish more, be more productive, push more, and check off more items on our list before we can rest.

But if we're weary, worn out or burned out, how can we share our best, work, best self and be who God made us to be?

I've been learning this lesson over the past few years and having to learn that sometimes it's rest or quieter nature and most often God that I need more than I need to produce, perform or push.

It's when we allow ourselves breaks, rest and renewal that we can step back into our day in our lives, being fully present, full of love and creativity to do our best work.

This is how we were created.

But we've got to stop following the cue of culture and hustle and follow the pace God intended us to live.

Everything changes when we do this and when we realize we are worthy of rest now, not after achieving and we are worthy of love right now.

I think I shared this probably in the first Joy Camp summer episode, but I want to share it again.

Joy comes when we are grounded in who God is and who he has made us to be.

When we realize that we are already enough right now.

Not in our striving to be more or in accomplishing or achieving more.

But now this is when we find the joy we are looking for in God's love and in his presence.

Okay, and my action item for you this week is to go to my website kristenfitch.com and go grab the Joy Rising Daily Gratitude and Joy Journal.

Because this is basically just a.

It'll just take you a few minutes.

It's a daily check in for gratitude, joy and God's presence in your life each day.

So it'll only take you a few minutes and But I think this is a great next step for you to start finding yourself appreciating and being grateful for what's already in your life and how God's already moving in your life and where you see, you know, joy glimmers if you will.

So go grab that today and just print it out and then you can print it more copies as you need it.

It's absolutely free.

So go to KristinFitch.com and go to my workbooks and it's at the top.

There's also a Joyful Living devotional.

It's a 15 day journey of devotions and reflection to help you let go of worry, anxiety and hustle and experience more peace and joy.

So you can grab both of those absolutely free.

I would love for you to do that.

And until next time, I hope that you will experience more joy in your life.

If you enjoyed today's episode, if you could leave a rating review on Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts, it helps the show get discovered by more people so that we can continue to uplift and encourage people in their faith journey as well as all of the other parts of their lives.