September 23--All She Wants from Life

To learn, to desire, to know, to feel, to think, to act.  This
is what I want.  And nothing else.  That is what I must try for.

Katherine Mansfield

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Today's Meditation:

It's important that Katherine knows what she wants--how many of us have actually sat down, thought this concept through, and come up with a list that says "This is what I want. . . and nothing more"?  How simple would life become with such a list in hand?  How easy would it be to make decisions once we've considered what we really want out of our experiences here during our lifetimes?

Of course, we could quibble all day long about the contents of such a list.  Looking at Katherine's list, I would immediately say that I'd have to have the words "to love" in there somewhere.  But this is her list, not mine, and she may see the love there in another one of her words, like "to act" or "to feel."  The words themselves aren't so important, and it's not necessary for us to share our lists with others--the most important thing we can do is simply to come up with such a list and to start to live according to that list.

I imagine that such a list would be under constant revision.  If you made such a list and included something like "to become debt-free," then you'd have to change that item once it comes to pass, perhaps to "live debt-free."  And right now I may find it very important to focus on my job, whereas five years from now there may be other elements of my life, such as new relationships or new children, that become more pressing than the work that I do.

Katherine says "that is what I must try for," which is also important.  She doesn't say these things are what she must accomplish, just that she must try.  And after all, isn't that what life is about:  deciding what is best for us and then doing our best at it, succeed or fail?  It's the trying that develops us and helps us to become the people we are, and it's important that we never lose the chance to continue trying.  And it would be great to have a list to guide us as we do so.

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Questions to consider:

What are the things that you most want?  Have you ever written them down?

What would such a list look like for you?

Why do we not tend to look at life from the bigger picture perspective, instead focusing on the minute details of our day-to-day goals?

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For further thought:

The reason most people never reach their goals

is that they don't define them, or ever seriously
consider them as believable or achievable.

Denis Waitley

more on goals