WHAT DO YOU WANT ?

'What do you want' is a simple question. Any kid if questioned will have a prompt answer. But do adults have an answer to that ? Do we have an answer at all ? I have my own reservations, because my answer varies daily. The latest trendy answer, I often keep reading or listening is  'I want happiness'. Don't they have happiness right now? Are not they happy in whatever they are doing or whatever they have ? The usual tendency is, a person craves for something that he or she does not have. The happiness answer sets me thinking. Everyone is craving for something else than what he has. Does that mean that they are curently unhappy. Now the focus shifts from 'what do you want' to 'what is happiness' ?  Some say happiness is a state of mind, some say it varies from person to person. Some view happiness as the journey of life and not the goal. So even here there are no easy  answers to the question.

Trying to find answers, people  try reading books of motivational authors, surf the net, read motivating forwards, attend seminars on life, assuming that one of them will provide an answer to attain happiness. We think some one else will teach  us how to live our lives. I think its pretty weird, though I myself have fallen prey to that. Reading Dale Carnegie, Steven Covey, Robin Sharma, hungrily devouring sites such as zen habits, storing and reading some motivating forwards again and again. Does all this sound familiar. We  all  do it one time or the other. They do provide us a momentary high and we feel satisfied. We feel we have got answers to some questions and feel satisfied. But that euphoria does not last long. We become  disillusioned again and start searching for answers to the  questions of life -"What do I want?", "How to be happy?"

Some people do say that they are very happy in their lives and content, because being content is happiness to them. So does that mean that they do not want anything more in their lives. I am not sure what does contentment mean. Is it contentment in the job they are doing, contentment in the relationships they have, contentment in every aspect of life they are leading ?  I have no answers, because when probed more, they again have a list of things they are unhappy with. I have not come across anyone who has ever said "I do not want anything."  I wish to meet someone like that one day.

Some say  'Well, I don't know what I want". I place myself in this category. I have no idea of what I want in my life, because it keeps changing each day. As regards what gives me happiness, if I had figured it out, I would have been happy always, which is not true. I feel sad at times, cannot figure out how things are shaping in my life, why my life is shaping in such a way. Some motivators say that we are responsible for our destiny. We shape our lives. In that case, there wouldn't be so much of pain and suffering around. No one wants to suffer or  have problems. Does that mean that people who are suffering have shaped thier lives to suffer. Who would do that ?Some argue and say suffering, hardships are destiny. We cannot control our destiny is what  some opine, but we can control our lives by our actions . Are life and destiny different, I have no idea. We all have to give our best shot at everything we do, and yet if the consequences are bad, it is simply blamed on destiny. The other school of thought says, God is testing us by throwing challenges, hardships. He wants us to be more strong. Why do we need to be more strong ? The answer is so that we become more tough when destiny throws more difficult challenges at us. Why do we need to be tested time and again  by God? I have always been told that we are Gods' creation and he knows us better. I am confused.

I am still trying to figure out answers to the above questions, hoping they will help me answer my basic question 'What do I want' ? Does that mean that I am unhappy because I do not know what I want. I am not unhappy, but that does not imply that I am happy always.  But I know one thing for sure that even if I do not know what I want in my life, I am a normal human being, because I feel and react to both pleasure and pain.