The Importance of Desire

I’ve been reading the Desire Map and studying happiness. Desire is the key to happiness, but it’s not what we desire, it’s more so why.

We can desire a big house that’s fine but the reason why will determine if that truly makes you happy. If you want a big house to make a home for your family to make memories that will bring you a different type of joy than wanting a big house because your friend has one.

When you desire things for external reasons they will not make you truly happy. Once you obtain that desire, you will feel empty again. When you want something because it is what you want for yourself, that will make you happy.

I shared in this blog post how I wasn’t really happy. I was dealing with so much change and wasn’t getting the things that I desired. One thing I did was really examine my desires. Why did I want this? How did this desire come about? I wanted to make sure I wasn’t living in some fantasy land with super high expectations.

Thankfully I was not.

That is such a great thing! Not because I wasn’t happy, but because I realized I was still in control of my happiness. I also had every right to be unhappy with the way things were. The difference is that I didn’t let myself get stuck there in that low place. I almost did. I started slowing down, I was distracted, found myself becoming upset so I stopped.

I started focusing on the NOW, the present is all that we have. The things that mattered to me became my priorities and anything that threatened my happiness had to go!

What is it that you desire, and are you focusing on that?