Minimalism of Desire

Amid a culture that's constantly bombarding us with 'the next thing', most people scarcely know how to define a true need. We end up thinking we need things that we didn't know existed the day before. How often do these things satisfy us? The next day we want the next thing, we're monetarily poorer and still just as empty inside. What if our positions weren't the antidote to this endless cycle, but rather where we place our desires?

The disease of more

No matter how much we have we always want more. When asked "How much money is enough?" some attribute John D. Rockefeller, one of the richest people in modern history, as answering, "Just one more dollar." We just want more, often for no concrete reason. You know that feeling when you refresh your news feed? It's as if the desire to never be content is hardwired into our brains.

In today's world, we're too busy building bigger and better things the concept of enough is almost completely foreign. When a person's means expands, naturally their ends follow suite. Given this trajectory, the most that people can hope for is solace in the fact that they tried their best. Satisfaction can seem like an allusion at best, and yet some find contentment amidst the chaos of life - but how?

There are few definite answers to the plethora of life problems, but most issues can be worked out through a shift in perspective. What if we were to shift our perspective of enough and redefine it as a state of being rather than a state of having?

Yearning for being more, not having more

Though you may dream of the day you have everything you want, that day will likely never come. Even if that day did come to pass, we wouldn't know what to do because most people have spent their lives pursing bigger and better things. As a sort of counteractive measure, I've made a conscious effort to stop wanting physical things and instead find value in the experiences that shape who I become.

Most people think that the more money they have, the more cars they have, the more houses they have the better their life will be. People who chase these things rarely find fulfillment, and if they do it's not in those tangible things. Instead of thinking the more you have the better your life will be, try thinking that the less you want the more potential you have to find contentment - over time this in turn lead to fulfillment.

Though things are indeed alluring, they are all temporal. It's shocking how easily the most valuable of your positions can be misplaced, stolen, or destroyed. But it's the intangible things that cannot be appraised which have lasting value - your relationships, your experiences, your character, and your accomplishments. These are things that only death itself can rob us of.

Wanting less means that you'll have more

It's clear that if no one wanted anything more than what they already had the world economy would come to a grinding halt. If we can't completely rid ourselves of desire, how then can we discern what quests to pursue and which to abandon? That all depends on what you value most.

When we consciously seek what we value most, we can begin to find freedom from the meaningless pursuits that have no lasting consequence. I've come to realize that when I think I have enough this becomes my reality. Life is not a zero-sum game, enough is a mindset not a state of being.

The pursuit of more can leave us in an endless cycle of endless desire. Though more can lead to new heights or new lows, it will never lead to enough. Your desire isn't something that can or should be tamed - it's something that should be redirected. Yearn to accomplish more, to be more, to experience more not to have more. It's this minimalism of desire that will pave the way towards enough and the freedom found therein.