The Desire Beyond Desire: Clues to a Greater You
Say no to have a deeper yes.
Image Credit-mimetictheoryWe all have natural desires.
Like the desire to eat.
Sometimes I desire burgers and fries.
But there's a deeper desire we're seeking.
Like the desire to nourish our bodies with healthy food.
We all have human needs.
There's many ways to describe them, but here's what Matthew Kelly, Australian motivational speaker and author says.
We have physical needs, emotional needs, intellectual needs, and spiritual needs.
Each one we can fill with deep desires or surface desires.
Surface desires create anxiety, confusion, stress, and fear.
While deeper desires create peace, clarity, excitement, and courage.
Surface desires are clues
Like my burger and fries example, we can see the deeper desire within.
To nourish my body.
But why would I want burger and fries in the first place?
It gives great pleasure.
Let me tell you a story back when I worked a corporate job.
Many days I worked long hours.
Lots of meetings, projects, and deadlines.
At the end of each month I had to create a budget analysis.
There were dozens of sources I had to pull from.
Analysis I had to calculate.
And I had to present it to our team (20+ people including the VP).
This was stressful. I felt like I didn't have enough time.
Or I was wanting to escape the situation.
Often times I would stress eat to feel better.
Chocolate was my go to.
In the moment it would make me feel better.
But I would later feel more tired and more stressed.
I was catering my emotional needs with food.
But if I looked closely at my desire for chocolate I would see a deeper desire.
A desire for both rest and relationship.
Because my physical body was tired, and my emotional mind was stressed.
The deeper desire could've been fulfilled with breaks and connection with co-workers.
Which would've resulted in more energy and help with the project.
Final Thought
It's easy to get caught up in surface level desires.
In a world full of distraction it's hard to see clearly.
The only way to say no to anything is to have a deeper yes.
Keep saying no to surface desires and go deeper to quench our true desires.
What is one thing today you can ask yourself if you truly need it,
or if it's fulfilling a surface desire?I help undisciplined people wanting a change in their unfulfilling lives find purpose and progress towards their personal goals.
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