The No Impact Dear Santa letter

[duncan drennan]

Dear Santa,

I was thinking how when I talked to a bunch of third graders a while back and I said to them, "How many of you know the feeling of really wanting something and then when your parents finally get it for you, instead of feeling excited, you feel kind of disappointed and sad?" Three-quarters of the kids raised their hands. By age eight, these kids already knew that more stuff doesn't really make you feel better.

I was thinking, too, how that wanting feeling I get in the pit of my stomach is never cured by getting the object of my desire. Once I get what I want, instead of feeling satisfied, my want just moves on to the next thing. And I was also thinking how most of my stuff has the effect of pulling me away from my friends and family--because I use it alone--when joking around and having fun with them actually is really effective at making that wanting feeling go away.

Read the full letter on No Impact Man

The whole letter is worth a read. The question is asks (essentially) is, "What has value?" It is a difficult question.

[Debbiedle]

Hi

This touches on the John Gray book - How to get what you want and want what you have. I understand it as follows:

If you are well balanced - have your NEEDS met, getting what you want becomes a lot easier.

The premise is that we ALL NEED:

Love from a Higher Being
Love from Parents or Parent Figures
Love from Siblings/other Family and Close Friends
Love from Peers/Colleagues
Love from Self
Love from Significant Other
Love FOR dependents/kids/animals
Love FOR immediate circle of people as well as community
Love FOR environment/world
Love FOR Higher Being

Once we have all these satisfied on a regular basis, we always feel grounded and centered.

For example: You really NEED the latest greatest new PVR but less than a week later you are setting your sites on the latest greatest Plasma Screen. This is partly filling up your SELF LOVE "Tank"

In fact, you may have been running low on LOVE FOR THE IMMEDIATE CIRCLE OF PEOPLE AS WELL AS COMMUNITY. Hence the imagined NEED for the PVR, which didn't satisfy your INNER NEED the way you thought it may have and the subsequent shift for the Plasma Screen NEED!

Hope this makes sense. I find that if I run through a mental list of these when I am feeling dissatisfied with life in general, I am quickly able to identify my REAL INNER NEED.