During my undergraduate degree, I spent a lot of time writing about my life philosophy. In large part, this was the result of many of my assignments asking me to reflect on my own life with respect to whatever content we were learning that week, but it also was in part because I tend to be relatively introspective when it comes to approaching tasks.
Interestingly, what I want to write about today to an extent involves an explanation of why introspection is not always that great of an activity to partake in, and specifically about how we should use limited bursts of introspection to fuel the lives that we live.
Desires – The Things We Really Want
Desires are strong wants. They develop for a multitude of reasons, and in most situations have something to do with what we value and think of as important to ourselves (though sometimes desires emerge out of social pressure, but that is not a focus of today).
With today’s essay, I want to explore the relationship between our desires and with reality itself.
Desires are things that people have. So, what do people do with their desires? While, there are a multitude of things that they can do:
- They can continue to think about them, pondering the question “Just imagine life if I had this thing!”
- They can ignore them, leaving them be as objects in their mind, but ones that they are quick to dismiss or let go.
- They can take the time to sit down and think logically about the root of the desire, then make a decision about whether or not it is something worth pursuing.
- Or, they can simply pursue the desire. They can hold it, then decide, I am going to go after this.
A Confession
Too often, when I have desires I proceed with one of my first two options. The first meaning, that I think about how great it would be to have said thing, without doing anything to actually make it reality. And the second meaning that I let things roam around in my head, and dismiss them as low-priority or unimportant whenever they come up.
These relationships are unhealthy. So, that is why I am going through the third option right now, writing down my thoughts about my desire to live a more intentional life where I go after the things that really matter to me.
The Interface for Moving From Desire to Reality
So, how do we move an item of desire into an item of possession?
While, I am writing this today, because although it may be obvious to many, I recently just stumbled across the idea in my mind that:
The only language that the universe understand is action.
– My brain earlier today
So, what does this mean with respect to our desires and possessions?
Simple, this means that action is the only way to move items from being ones of desire to possession.
Again, writing this feels kind of f’ing silly, since this seems really obvious, but I feel it is something worth writing since it is something that I so often do not do.
Start With a Signal
Few great things (if any) were built only inside of an individuals mind.
If there is something out there that you want, you need to begin by taking some type of action that communicates to the universe “I am going to get this thing.”
Do the smallest thing.
Literally just start by writing it down.
By taking the ACTION, of writing the thing down, you immediately begin to communicate to the universe (and to yourself), that this is something you really want.
Then once it is written down, just ask yourself “what is the next thing I can do to get closer to the thing that I want?” If you just keep doing that over and over again, the universe has no choice but to listen, and eventually it will give you what you want (although, I do believe that in the case of morally/ethically incorrect things, the universe will reject your proposal and your actions, so please stick to doing things that are morally/ethically correct).
