Like vs. Want
July 14, 2010
by Carter Schoffer
I went to Walmart last night. I was running errands. I needed to buy a handful of household cleaners, a new toilet brush, baby-wipes for my bulldog’s bottom and face folds, and a handful of other miscellaneous household stuff.
I don’t like going to Walmart. I don’t like having to spend time and money procuring the crap I just listed. I don’t enjoy squeezing by unmannered dregs in muumuus and sweats as they root through bargain bins. All around, it’s a task that given my druthers, I really would prefer to forgo.
And for that matter, I don’t like having to attend to putting the aforelisted items to use.
Call me highbrowed and clean-nailed.
That complaint registered, I do, however, like having a clean abode, a non-mephitic reading pot, a feculence-free four-legged friend and all the other benefits of all the other crap I picked-up. And, despite the fact that I loathe the task that is the Walmart experience, I do like that it satisfies my needs.
So, realizing that quite often in life we’re forced to put up with things we don’t like in-order to get to the things we want, I went to Walmart; I scrubbed my floors; I dusted my shelves; I washed my clothes; I brushed my teeth; I polished my faucets; I gave the throne a good scrubbing; I cleaned my dog’s crevices; and I performed a bunch of other menial chores.
All unfavourable tasks done to reach favourable ends.
Last week I travelled to a beach / cottage town to hang out with a few close buddies. We walked around with our shirts off, sans sunscreen in UV-chart busting sun. We each lost count after 15 drinks. We hit on girls we shouldn’t of (for more reasons than one) in ways we really shouldn’t have. We ate crap food. We slept for less than 3 hours. We can’t remember what happened after 2am. We probably took a couple years off of our lives.
We had a blast.
But I won’t do that again for months – likely not even again this year.
Why? Because I know well enough that as pleasurable as those inputs are, the outputs, as felt the next morning, would be deleterious and directly counter to my hierarchy of wants, priorities and goals, if continued with any regularity.
They were very favourable actions with very unfavourable consequences.
Funny that. How like and want aren’t synonymous. How they can be in complete conflict. How quite often in life you have to do things you don’t like in order to get the things you want. And conversely, how it’s pretty clear that just because you enjoy doing something, that doesn’t mean that the ultimate result will be enjoyable.
The fact is, that to look better naked, perform better, feel better, live longer, or achieve whatever your particular want is, some of the things you have to do you won’t enjoy and you’ll have to say goodbye to some of the things that you do.
Hardly a revelation but certainly a needed reality check.
