Pursuit vs Attainment

Everyday we wake up with a new desire, new hope, and challenges we wish to overcome. The yearning gives us a reason to live and to strive for success. In life, we are encouraged to chase our desires. Usually the pursuit of our deepest desires is a lengthy one. We grow so accustomed to the chase, that we know nothing else. We feel the satisfaction for a little while when we attain our desires, but the real pleasure comes from the pursuit. If we had no desires, we would do nothing and be nothing. When you strongly crave something you work very hard to have it in your hands. Then, when it is finally yours, your enthusiasm lasts for a short period of time, and obviously what most people do is develop a new desire because we get bored. For example, when you play video games, you finally reach level five in world of war craft, you’re happy for a little while but then you want to reach level ten, and progress, nobody wants to stay stuck in the same place. This is human nature: not complacency. We are never satisfied because we desire to evolve. And we always wonder, after achieving something that we wanted so badly: “Why am I not pleased? I wanted this so much and now I feel nothing.” We feel lost once the chase is over, as it fuels us and keeps us going. Another reason why this is true is because the pursuit of happiness gives purpose to our lives.

Therefore, once that purpose is achieved, we are left purposeless. This can make us feel miserable and we will go looking for other things to achieve. Just as Bertrand Russell had said, “to be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.” For instance, how many toys did your parents buy you when you were a child? How long did you cherish the doll or action figure for? I would go months on my best behavior begging my parents for the new latest Barbie doll, after attaining it I was happy but only for a little while, then I discovered something better and my Barbie ended up under my bed along with last seasons Ken doll and I was off chasing the next big thing. I believe we are never satisfied and we always end up striving for more because we want the better things in life. In conclusion, we find much more satisfaction and pleasure in the pursuit of our desires then we find in the attainment of them. After all, not having everything you want means you still have something to fight for, which is…to live. Once one desire is attained, another will quickly replace it because when a desire is satisfied we derive no more pleasure from it.