Nothing moves us like desire.
Wanting, craving, needing, desiring something moves us from inaction to action. From indifference to compulsion. From resource saving to resource spending.
All to satisfy a desire within us.
Desire is tricky, though. Not all desires are created equal. There are better desires and worse, greater desires and lesser, deeper desires and cheaper.
Needing more quality time with your children is a better desire than needing to prove someone wrong on politics. Craving the security of self-confidence is a greater desire than craving pizza. Wanting a mission you believe in at work is a deeper desire than wanting to watch the Monday Night Football game.
It's not that any of these desires are wrong, invalid, or inappropriate. It's that they're unequal. Or what the desires can deliver is unequal, making them unequal.
The difficulty is that better and worse, greater and lesser, deeper and cheaper desires often feel similar. They tug at our minds and pull on our hearts. They whisper in our ears and flash in our eyes.
When desire is strong, it feels beyond our control, like an unstoppable force we can’t change. It feels as if we have no choice. In its peak state, it feels like desire is driving us rather than us driving our desire. That's a dangerous state of mind to live in.
The good news? You can educate your desire. You must. Because the bad news is everything you experience is attempting to educate your desires for you.
I am responsible for what I choose to want. It's incumbent on me to educate my desires to want higher purpose, not lesser. Better things, not worse. Deeper value, not cheaper.
I must teach my desire to orient more toward excellence and fulfillment than toward comfort and entertainment. I'm the only one who can make that choice for me.
If I don't, the world will educate my desire for me. I will want what I'm told to want, pursue what I'm told to pursue, and seek happiness through all the things that promise to give it to me.
I am responsible for educating my desire instead of being its puppet.
The time is now. Do the work.
Share your thoughts