A sick man only has one wish

Waking up on the weekend with a sore throat and a blocked nose reminds me of a quote I came across a while ago:

"A healthy man wants a thousand things, a sick man only wants one."

Yea, don't think I care about anything much at this moment other than getting healthy again.

The never-ending chase

Positive thoughts come and disappear quickly. We quickly accustom ourselves to what we have and look forward. Negative thoughts linger and new desire appears. It is our evolutionary nature to do so and it is what drove human progression for millennia.

On a macro level, I think this instinct is mostly good. Our collective desire keeps innovation coming and pushes us to new heights.

But on an individual level, this can easily become toxic.

Not only do you want a 1,000 things but will likely never acquire all of them. Even if you do so you will want the newer, the better.

It really is like the metaphor where we're a rat chasing after a carrot with a stick in front of us: never reaching it but yet always so close.

Perspectives

So maybe we shouldn't focus on getting more. Maybe we should focus on looking inwards, into what we already have, the things we are been taking for granted.

“One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity” – Bruce Lee

I think Bruce Lee puts it beautifully: we don't need more, we need less.

Stop looking outwards for external solutions to cure your desire, instead look inwards into what you already have and put things into perspective. (How to put things into perspective, and into what sort of perspectives is another blog post itself. That's for another day.)

Even your most mundane Sunday morning coffee will feel special when you're reminded that this, the life that you're living, was all you ever wanted once upon a time.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend!

Cheers,

Jason x