Even though this may seem obvious initially, in several occasions we find ourselves doing things we deep down would rather not do. If you honestly prod yourself a bit more you may be surprised to learn that the things you get involved in actually have nothing to do with what you actually want.
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Most of us have been to the party we didn’t really want to be in, perhaps because we secretly hoped it could take our minds off whatever else we were thinking about or because our friends dragged us along, and most of the time it almost works before reality hits and we are left holding a drink we are not drinking in a place we are not enjoying. All this probably made worse by the sight of the genuinely happy people around us and now I ask rhetorically.
What if we knew exactly what we wanted in life?
In an ideal world in which we knew whether to upgrade to a flashy new cell phone, to the choice of persons we dated or the course we studied in school and we only set out to do what we truly desired so that you only worked hard at what you wanted to do. What if you were never confused about what you actually wanted by bright flashy commercials compelling us to buy what we think we want, or friends that in their best interests try to convince us to go to that rally we deep down know we don’t belong in or everybody around you thinking you and your spouse are God’s second attempt at the biblical Adam and Eve, even when you are not so sure about that yourself. If we were never confused about any of these and a lot more then perhaps we would be spared from wasting so much of our time, energy and money.
How do we get to that point?
To my perspective, we are only doing what we want to do and nothing else! We can individually get the exact answer to that on condition that we frequently asked ourselves “why?” before we ask ourselves “how?” If you can genuinely answer why you are going to do something and you are contented with the answer for why you are going to attend 8 years of medical school, spend $1000 on a new phone or spend hours nursing a hangover from the night before, then by all means go ahead. But if not then perhaps you should consider that you are only being influenced, convinced or sold to believe that you want these things that you really don’t and that your pursuit of them will probably be a waste of your time and energy, which is a shame because we only have a limited amount of these.
And while all this may sound a tad too glum, it should actually show that we have given far too much attention to the wrong things and less to those that truly matter to us and that by letting go of whatever we are holding onto we can then start the process of getting what we actually truly want in life be it a better spouse, more full filling career and everything else between.
