What do you want? Such a simple question.
On the surface you’d think “sure I know what I want, who doesn’t?” We’re not talking about a new outfit or car here. We’re talking about what makes you feel you are on the right path where you have direction and feel peace and fulfillment in what you are doing. This question always plagues me most when I’m in turmoil. When something is not in sync or I’m at a cross roads this question ALWAYS makes its entrance.
Why does it matter to know what you want? Peace is a wonderful thing. So isn’t alignment. To be in sync with your life work, to grow, and feel like what you do matters to those you influence. This is what happens when you know what you want.
Notice I am not talking about making money here. Money is nice and we all want it, but this isn’t about money. In my never ending quest to understand my own answer to this question I’m sharing with you some of the things I’ve stumbled upon that have helped.
Drifting. Drifting is not your friend. A whole life time can pass while drifting. You’ll never feel fulfilled drifting. I stumbled across this really clear picture on the notion of drifting.
Drifting is when you don’t know what you want. It goes like this.. A boat at sea can drift about and eventually end up somewhere. Or you can plot a course and get where you want to go directly.
Well that sums it up! If you don’t know where you want to go then you’ll aimlessly drift and maybe get somewhere, someday. Maybe it’s what you want, maybe not. You will get whatever drifts up. Clearly no one really wants to be a drifter. Plotting the course is the same as knowing what you want. The course can be entirely what you want at whatever speed feels right in the direction of your choosing. If you plot it and stay on it, you WILL get there.
I have certainly not mastered the subject of knowing what I want. What I can say is that it trips me up most. Many self-help avenues skip right past figuring out what you want and start with clarity already in hand. It doesn’t work when you are not clear. What helps is to give yourself a root cause of what drives you. I’ve honed and refined it down. It is the very thing that drives your life. We get caught up in a million things we have to do each and every day that life begins to blur into months and years, enter drifting. I don’t think it’s selfish to stop and think about what you really want your life to be like. Don’t beat yourself up if it feels like your head will explode trying to answer this simple question. It’s not simple. If you can do it, instead of swimming against the current you will swim with it.
I know you want to know what my root cause is. I shall be vulnerable and share it. I want to help people lift people. That’s it. I feel in total alignment when I am helping someone achieve something because now they believe they can. People from all walks of life need someone to believe in them, even the ones that appear most successful. I’ve learned to not judge a book by its cover and not assume that everyone has someone that believes in them. The things people can do because they have someone in their corner is astounding. If my work is accomplishing this, then I feel that inner peace and alignment.
This is my want and it is no greater or smaller than any of yours. I can promise you it is worth the mental debate, scary changes you might need to make and the vulnerability you’ll face. You’ll need to clear out the negativity that’s around you. That is not easy. If you do find what drives you, you’ll come out clear, focused, honest, and moving towards that inner peace and alignment that is worth more than any dollar could provide. Your answer to this question will become your compass that will always steer you in the right direction past the drifters.
