Desire
The idea of appearing to do something - you get the same level of satisfaction if you know that someone believes you’re accomplishing something as you do from actually accomplishing something and so it’s easy to get trapped in that loop and so you never get there because you’re too busy sharing that you’re getting somewhere instead of actually doin... See more
Expected elation. Society has built a world that defines what's appealing and what's not. What success should look like. I spent years chasing this idea, and achieved it. And never felt truly happy. Why? It seems so obvious, there are a million songs and movies about how wealth and fame aren't the end all be all for human states. Yet we pursue it a... See more
To gain more control over your desires, figure out what your particular version of the Michelin Guide looks like. It might not involve stars at all, but the approval of specific people or the expectations of your friends or family; or the awkwardness of sharing with others that you have always wanted to do something that not many people would under... See more
Aeon • How to Know What You Really Want | Psyche Guides
Desire is the closest thing there is to magic. Nothing else changes the world so powerfully, so quickly. Nothing else builds empires or families or great works of art. Nothing else rearranges my perception so fully, making some things salient and others basically invisible. Even in spiritual lineages dedicated to ending desire entirely, the startin... See more
River Kenna • Varieties of Desirous Experience
“The modern man is always claiming a self-sufficiency which he is unable to achieve. He constantly compares himself with other people and, afraid that they might be superior, he secretly copies their manners and borrows their desires.”
Leo Nasskau • René Girard, mimetic desire, and society's biggest rat race
What is your relationship to objects and their connection with desire?
There is always something else to strive for – and this keeps most of us in a constant, sometimes painful, state of never-satisfied striving. And that striving for something that we do not yet possess is called desire. Desire doesn’t bring us joy because it is, by definition, always for something we feel we lack.
Aeon • How to Know What You Really Want | Psyche Guides
