What You Think You Need, Might Not Be What You Really Need

(picture by collectiveevolution.com)

The other day I was sitting in my car driving at a very slow pace in traffic.

It was about 95 degrees outside and the humidity was about 95%.

To say it was hot is an understatement.
But I guess if you were born and raised in the South then it was probably just another summer day for you, but for me, it was anything but.

The humidity is a killer!!

Plain and simple it sucks!!

But besides all of that as I was sitting there weaving my way through a sea of stopped or slowly moving cars on the freeway this thought came to me:

“The things you, “think” you need in life are the very things that will enslave you.”

That thought hit me like a ton of bricks.

I wrestled with it for a few minutes in my mind.

• What does that really mean?
• Why am I having this thought now?
• What triggered this thought?

The interesting thing to me was that for a while now I have been thinking about why I do some of the things I do or why I act the way I do about certain things in my life.

To be completely honest I have kind of been feeling like I’ve lost some of my personal power in life.

Then that thought came to me again…

“The things you think you need in life are the very things that will enslave you.”

So as I was sitting there in traffic I started to think to myself:

• What is it I really need in life to survive?
• Why do I think I need certain things?
• How have those things I think I needed, enslaved me in my life?

What is it I really need in life to survive?

Is it money? We all need some to live, but you’d be surprised at how much you really need as to how much you “think” you need to survive.

Is it a big house? No. Even if you “think” you do, you really don’t.

Is it one million followers on Instagram? No. Many people “think” they need that today, but you really don’t.

The job of my dreams? No. But everyone today thinks that if they can’t do something they are passionate about or something that pays a million dollars a year they don’t want anything to do with it.

What is it you really need to survive?

Here is what I came up that I absolutely need to survive:

• Water.
• Some food.
• Some form of shelter.

Everything after that is just icing on the cake.

How do you think you might look at your day differently if you truly put into perspective what you absolutely needed?

Why do I think I need certain things?

I think there are many reasons why we feel like we need this or that in life.

Sometimes I think it could be because of the way we were raised, or maybe some of the things we’ve been given in life up to this point.

I do think that there is a huge problem in our world today of entitlement and it seems the younger generations who have arguably had it the best of any generation so far feel they are automatically entitled to certain things in life.

This is not true and it never will be true.

We are not entitled to anything in this life. If you want something in this life you need to go get it. You need to work hard and make it happen.

Entitlement is a disease, and it will never do anything positive for you as long as you have it as your mindset.

How have those things I think I needed, enslaved me in my life?

I used to think I needed a million dollars to be happy in life and where did that get me?

• Working 50 to 80 hour weeks for years.
• Traveling on the road every week for 10 years.
• Starting at the lowest position in a facility and working my way to the Corporate office to be the youngest person to ever be a Director at the Corporate office to report directly to the Vice President of IT.
• I had a corner office in a tower overlooking the city.

Then one day the company decides it’s time to downsize…

Fifteen years of my life meant nothing to this company and they turned me out like I just started there yesterday.

I used to think I needed a huge house to be happy in life.

You know what… You don’t if you have a house that’s more then most people today have. Be thankful for what you have.

I used to think I needed to understand everything in life and that if I didn’t all I needed to do was keep trying harder to learn it all.

You know what… No matter what you do in life you will never know it all. Be thankful for the things you already know and the things you pick up each day. Learning never stops, but you also will never know it all, so come to terms with that and do the very best you can each day.

I used to think I needed a Ferrari to drive to work to show people I finally made it to the top.

You know what… If you have a car and it's pretty dependable be thankful. You have more then most people have.

I used to think I needed a certain title or position to be happy in life.

You know what… A title and position are just letters on a piece of paper. You don’t need a title or position to impact someone else’s life for the better. Never let a title or position hold you back from doing something you know you should or want to do.

Each of the things I’ve mentioned above has enslaved me for so long in my life.

I’ve spent so many years chasing the things I “think” I needed.

But in reality, I didn’t really need those things at all.

So now I’m spending my days saying this quote back to myself multiple times a day in my mind:

“The things you, “think” you need in life are the very things that will enslave you.”

I’m always trying to remind myself about how easy it is to be enslaved by the things I “think” I need.

Do I really need this?

That is the question I want to leave you with today, my friends.

Be so careful of the things you “think” you need in life. Believe me when I tell you that it can be a very slippery slope that once you start you could be blinded to for years or even decades.

Don’t be like me my friends and waste years of your life to learn this lesson.

Heed my simple and not so eloquent words in this post my friends and save yourself this very, very steep learning curve.


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