"I want..."

I could give you the whole spiel about the importance of goal-setting, and how we are doing so far…

But no, you probably don't need that.

In fact, you're probably overambitious and overcommitted like me and the last thing you need is someone to tell you to think big, reach your goals and achieve even greater things.

So let's do things differently.

Let’s pause for a moment and take a good hard look at our desires and how we relate to them.

I'll give you an example. My desires usually go like this:

"I want more of [x], so I go out and get it. And then I work until I get more of [x]. And then, before I find the time to actually enjoy what I worked for, my desires kick back in again and tell me I now want more of [y]. So I go out again to make sure to get more of [y]."

This cycle repeats itself. Endlessly. Because I let it.

Schopenhauer described the nature of our desires so well when he said:

"[...] every satisfied desire gives rise to a new one. No possible satisfaction in the world could suffice to still its longings, set a goal to its infinite cravings, and fill the bottomless abyss of its heart. Then let one consider what as a rule are the satisfactions of any kind that a man obtains."

So imagine we were to work as hard on lessening our desires as on satisfying them, what that would do. I think we would all find the breath in life that we seem to be gasping for lately.

And since we would then need less than before, we would get more than we need, even if the getting remains unchanged.

Don't get me wrong, of course I believe that it's okay to want more out of life - it’s important. There’s just great silliness to wanting more by default or expecting more will make you happy once you've got enough to live off. It will never stop.

Therefore, learning to love a plain bowl of rice as you would love a Michelin-star dinner will foster and germinate happiness and contentment.

Beautiful!