Wants vs. Needs

I sometimes find myself at odds with what I want vs. what I need. Like this new Badgley Mischka Platinum Label handbag…I really want it. However, I need to go to the bank and get a CD to serve as part of my soon to be five year old daughter’s college fund. Speaking of my daughter, everyday around 1pm I need to go over her daily lessons in Math, Reading, Handwriting, etc. However, I REALLY just want to take a nap (don’t judge me)!

What I want and what I need is often the same thing, except for when it comes to things that bring immediate gratification. Something that is immediately gratifying brings instant enjoyment or pleasure. In this infamously coined microwave generation, it’s no wonder we do not want to wait for anything. You can get an instant line of credit and walk away with a new car that you later scramble to make monthly payments on. You can get a quick bite to eat at any of the hundreds of fast food chains across America and think about the long term side effects that it may have on your health…later. These examples may seem trivial. But, doing the things that you need to do in order to enjoy the things you want to have, is an important lesson to learn.

I love what I do now. But, I use wonder what my life would be like if I hadn’t decided not to become a psychiatrist because the additional schooling would have taken to long. What is really ironic is that I spent 4 years after graduating college, wandering around, trying to figure out what to do instead of psychiatry. It took four years for me to figure it out, but at the end of those four years, I learned that I was a writer, speaker, and a good business woman!

Here is the lesson:
Do what you need to do so that you can have what you want to have. Doing what you need to do doesn’t mean that you will not be able to have what you want. It just means that you may have to delay what you want until everything that you need is in place.

To Blog…Nakeia