This is superb article that I came across today; it is worth a read, a ponder, and then applying to your own life 🙂
Click the link the read the full article from quartz; here’s a taster:
If I ask you, “What do you want out of life?” and you say something like, “I want to be happy and have a great family and a job I like,” it’s so ubiquitous that it doesn’t even mean anything.
A more interesting question, a question that perhaps you’ve never considered before, is what pain do you want in your life? What are you willing to struggle for? Because that seems to be a greater determinant of how our lives turn out.
Everybody wants to have an amazing job and financial independence—but not everyone wants to suffer through 60-hour work weeks, long commutes, obnoxious paperwork, to navigate arbitrary corporate hierarchies and the blasé confines of an infinite cubicle hell. People want to be rich without the risk, without the sacrifice, without the delayed gratification necessary to accumulate wealth.
I know once I read the except above I just had to devour the article and so I did. And then I asked myself as per title: What do I want? This is what the article asked and so I took the conversation a step further and started to write some thoughts:
What do I want to achieve in life? What is the legacy that I want to create every moment in every day?
Do I want to be remembered for hiding and for what I could have been had I more faith in myself?
Do I want to let my sensitivities and insecurities be what limits me? Or can I take these fears and use them to expand me to be all that I am and achieve all that I can potentially be? and more?
What level of discomfort am I prepared to put up with?
How many failures? How many times can I get back up when I feel misunderstood, alone and isolated?
How many times can I tolerate being wrong or feel insecure and vulnerable to the depths of my core?Do I want to run from these feelings that normally cause me to procrastinate turn on my heels and run?
Or shall I embrace it all as a necessary discomfort while I stretch into my skills and gifts?
Where can I push myself into more discomfort to achieve more? To really make my dreams and aspirations come true and help all those I really want to help.
How can I stretch myself more? Reach out more? Be more? Allow more?
What must I do to feel comfortable in being seen in my bare naked soul and authentic self?
How much pain am I willing to suffer to grow?
Growing pains…..
much to ponder….
Love, Andrea
Journeys in Healing 
I really loved this article. I wish I’d looked at life this way before now. But I intend to introduce this concept and new perspective to my girls. I really think it could be something that they can use, it can be confusing when you think you want something so much, and still fail at it. Changing our thinking to “Well, maybe that’s not really something I wanted, maybe there’s something else, what is important enough for me to attain that I am willing to suffer for?” are helpful questions to ask ourselves.