But I Don’t Know What I Want!

“Be all you can be!” said the advertisement. Join the army and you get to ride in a helicopter, and it’s exciting, oh boy.

(Ladies, it will seem silly to you, but it’s going to make sense to most any guy.)

But what?

What can I be?

And what can I have? And what can I do?

And … what do I want?

Actually, if you’re not immediately in touch with what you want, then you’ve just covered it over with old hurts, old failures, old disappointments, old … something. Because when you were a child, you knew what you wanted. And it’s still in there.

The sellers of Manifestation Marvels! will tell you that you can be, do, or have anything that you want. And, most likely, you can.

But some people, faced with this radical idea, usually their lifetime of experience and their past decisions and perceptions have given them a more mechanical view of life, just can’t immediately think of anything they’d like to have. “Huh?” one fellow said. The lady sitting next to him, I think it was his wife, just shook her head.

“Not a thing,” she said, “I’ve got just everything I need.”

Do you believe that?

HOW TO UNCOVER THE TRUTH

There are actually several ways to open the door and see what it is that you’d like to do, have, or be …

1. Think back to when you were a teen, just past puberty. What interested you at that time is often something that is near to your heart. At that age, you’re adult enough to perceive things in the adult world, and you’re still child enough to tune into what interests you rather than what is practical, what is reasonable, what is mature, what is sensible, or what you think might be attainable.
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2. Sit and close your eyes and relax, and imagine that some relative you never knew has departed this plane and left you immensely wealthy. You don’t have to work. You don’t have to worry. You can buy anything you want. You can spend your time any way you wish. And now, wealthy and idle as you are, just let your thoughts drift and dream up some things that you might do just for the heck of it. And keep these thoughts going for a few days, because when you open this flood gate, a lot may pour out.
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3. Get some paper and pencil and start writing down possibilities, no matter how crazy or stupid they sound. Do not allow your habitual focusing squelch the idea factory; every single crazy idea gets put down on the page. Just by the practice of admitting all crazy ideas, you’ll find that you can begin to see possibilities in these ideas, once you get out of the habit of throwing them out automatically.
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4. Take three pieces of paper, and on one of them write “People are …”, and on the next one “People can …”, and on the third one write “People have …” and then, over a couple of days, just jot down all the various things you think that people, other people, might be able to be, do, and have. Now on this list you may discover some of your self-limiting thoughts becoming exposed, and if you suddenly realize that you have the belief in this or that limiting factor, then ask yourself “Why not?” and “What if …” And of course on these pieces of paper you may find yourself listing things that other people could be, do, and have. And if they can have them, why not you? What if …

A half hour on these things will start turning up useful ideas.

A few days will work even more powerfully.

And then, when you start becoming more clear on what you want, then you can start thinking about how you might be able to be, do, and have these things.

It’s a good start.