Wanting Gets You Nowhere
Before I start, I want to say that I too should be listening to this article and many others like it.
There might be a lot said already in this title, but there’s still something I need to disclose about the minds of young, aspiring people — something I have noticed that might be deterring them from following and accomplishing their life’s aspirations.
Many of these people of whom I am close to already see themselves living grandiose futures when they have practically nothing of skill — which is both an insult to professionals and an impressive magic trick to watch.
Look, I laud you for having these dreams, and I believe you could definitely accomplish them, but what you’re looking at is the end product of something that takes sacrifice, and expecting to have something like that accomplished through frankly nothing at all makes it look more like a dream than anything else.
Yes, it’s great to dream big, but usually many of those fantasies that pass around inside your head will never make it out of there.
The “wanting” state of mind is a pandemic.
We as people are flooded with thousands of wants and decisions every day. If we could only focus our wants on one thing, we would be sure to get it done in time. But the problem rests not in the thing we want itself, but in us meeting the rest of thousands of wants in a day. We are addicted to meeting our wants, not accomplishing our goals.
We set our minds on something so far up the road that we end-up just saving it for later — because lying down and smoking cigars sounds like the better option right now. We chose to ignore the bigger goals in life because they seem like too much to do, especially with the list of other wants inside our heads.
Even if you bring yourself to finally try something, in the end you will end-up doing something simplistic and easy so the amount of time it takes does not interfere with the rest of the time you have saved for doing something else. We disrespect our goals by looking for easy ways out all the time.
Just simply wanting something brings nothing to your power. You are not in control of the outside world, but you feel that you and your wants deserve to have whatever it is that you’re fantasizing. This feeling of deserving something is sure to bring you nothing but negativity in the end. Those that claim the “world is a bitch” are the ones that lie with the rest of the broken dreamers whom have never noticed to find the time to sit down and actually pursue their aspirations. Don’t join these people.
Although it can be deadly, there is no cure for wanting something; it all lies in your power to make wiser decisions. Make that thing you want — no matter how big it is — the priority of your day.
Be harsh on yourself. The hardest part about focusing on your priorities is learning how to hurt your feelings. To get something done, you have to set that priority above you and above everything else, and this can conflict a lot with the other wants and feelings you have. Practice saying no to people, and learn how to make your own plans. It might be painful at first, but in order for you to set your priorities, nothing should be able to distract you — and come on, it’s pretty easy to distract a person.
Let go of multitasking. Stop thinking that you can get multiple things done in a day because you’re distracting yourself from the things that matter so you can waste more time doing a myriad of less-important tasks. In the process of trying to get many things done, you will end up putting off more time from your priority. Although it might feel like you’re accomplishing something, you are never going anywhere in reality.
Hate where you’re at right now. Let this be your motivation to take action — whatever action necessary — to move yourself away from your current position. A complacent mind is a dangerous mind because it is okay either with or without you completing the action. There’s a saying that if you want something hard enough, you will have it, but the world does not grant anything to you by measuring your levels of “want”. You must hate where you are, or you’re never going to move. I encourage you to wake up and feel disgusted, and let that be the power that pushes you to take action.
Lastly, let action be the most important step you take, for all that I have said would be valueless without it.
I hope this article did you well, and I wish the best for you.