... Let the question sink in before you answer.
... Well now.. Let's just talk about the technicalities of wants. How does someone decide what he wants?
1) Expectations
2) Whims
3) Emotions
4) Pressure
Goals. Let's talk about that for now. This heading can be divided into more sub headings.
a) meeting your own expectations of yourself (to allow yourself to feel good)
b) meeting other people's expectations of yourself (to allow others to feel good)
c) meeting your expectation of other people's expectations of yourself (to allow yourself to feel good by allowing others to feel good)
There is no right or wrong in any of these factors. I do want to point out that, the expectations of yourself and others will have to be clearly communicated to yourself in order for them to be met.
Whims. A lot of factors will be able to influence your whims. Good marketing/persuasion, biases, comparisons, emotions, etc. It will be easier to influence the whims for short term wants than long term wants though.
Emotions. When some people are happy, they may want to do things to maintain it. Some people will not want to, as they may have this thinking that happiness don't last. (Different people have different thinking.) It is the same with sadness, worry and other emotions.
Pressure. There is pressure from yourself, pressure from others like people around you and society and imaginary pressure from anywhere. This will affect what you want. Pressure is like stress, and like stress, it can be used positively or negatively. If you can use it positively, it will be good in helping you achieve what you want. If you cannot manage it well yet, you may deviate away from what you want at the start and you may make rash decisions about what you want. Keep those pressure away from you first and deal with it bit by bit.
For imaginary pressure, you can hold onto it if it helps you in anyway. If it makes you feel bad, just throw it away :s
The purpose of sharing this point of view, is to allow you to be more aware, so that more informed decisions can be made by yourself, rather than other people or other factors. This is your life, and the magic and the fun is in being able to have control over your own character.... Woohoo! :8
