Among other things, having lots of options can lead to us wanting so much more than we actually need. So is wanting more a good thing or a bad thing? Our actions are usually motivated by what we want. Is it possible to run out of things to want, and if so would that be beneficial or harmful to one's well-being? I have wondered for a long time whether the position of getting what we want actually leads us to want more. Is the grass always greener on the other side? Will what we don't yet have always appear more attractive to us, or can we actually get to a point of being totally satisfied with what we have?
At a certain level, we are a slave to everything we have and everything we want. So in a sense, wanting less should allow us to be more free. Wanting less will likely lead to us having less as well. But as we saw was true with options, taking that to the extreme of having nothing is clearly bad, so where do we find the middle ground? That is where we see your actual needs come into play. I think once our legitimate needs are met, any excess beyond that is where we experience freedom. Having our needs met does not automatically lead to satisfaction, that is always going to be a matter of perspective, but assuming that it is possible to be totally satisfied with what we have, would that position of satisfaction be a good place to be?
The movie Adjustment Bureau came out a while back and it presented an interesting premise. The conflict of the story is an omnipotent organization trying to sabotage one man's relationship with a girl. Their reason was that if he found fulfillment in that relationship, he would no longer be so driven to work hard to improve the world around him, because he would be satisfied with his life. That is a simplification of their idea, but it is something I have wondered about for a while. Can someone be both fulfilled and satisfied, and motivated to make things better, at the same time. Or are they mutually exclusive principles, where gaining ground with one will lead to loss of the other.
As someone who is very conscious of why he does things, I sometimes wonder what would happen if I actually managed to meet all of my needs. Would I stop working hard, and rest on my accomplishments? I am not sure because I have never been in that position, but I have gotten close. I have few material wants, and have satisfied those easily: I have a place to live, a truck to drive, and a really powerful laptop. My laptop is arguably my one selfish luxury, the way some people's cars are, but it is a useful tool as well. The rest of my wants and desires are not material things, but they relate to the material world: desires for friendship, marriage, understanding of God and his design for life. Satisfying those desires requires the investment of time, not money, but money can free up one's time from being spent satisfying material needs.
I will talk more about the value of time in my next post, for now let's just assume that time is able to satisfy the rest of my wants and desires. If I had everything I wanted, would I want more? I don't think so, since approaching that goal in the past has not caused me to automatically acquire new wants and desires, but there is a big difference between approaching that point, and actually being there. When I get there, I believe I will actually feel satisfied with what I have, but I am a little concerned about the effect that will have on my motivation and discipline to push myself and continue to grow.
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