What Do You Desire, Thought Provoking Motivation By Alan Watts: Motivational thought for your mind, brought to you by House Of Thought Media. This video is intended to inspire, motivate and empower you to be the best you can, enjoy. Please LIKE, SUBSCRIBE and SHARE for more. STAY THOUGHTFUL, BE MOTIVATED.

what do you desire what makes you itch

what sort of a situation

would you like let’s suppose I do this

often in vocational guidance of students

they come to me and say well we’re

getting out of college and we have the

faintest idea what we want to do so I

always ask the question what would you

like to do if money were no object what

would how would you really enjoy

spending your life well it’s so amazing

as a result of our kind of educational

system crowds of students say well we’d

like to be painters we’d like to be

poets we’d like to be writers but as

everybody knows you can’t earn any money

that way another person says well I’d

like to live in out of doors life and

ride horses I said he want to teach in a

riding school let’s go through with it

what do you want when we finally got

down to something which the individual

says he really wants to do I will say to

him you do that and forget the money

because if you say that getting the

money is the most important thing you

will spend your life completely wasting

your time you’ll be doing things you

don’t like doing in order to go on

living that is to go on doing things you

don’t like doing which is stupid better

to have a short life that is full of

what you like doing than a long life

spent in a miserable way

and after all if you do really like what

you’re doing it doesn’t matter what it

is you can eventually turn it you should

eventually become a master of it

the only way to become a master of

something to be really with it and then

you’ll be able to get a good fee for

whatever it is so don’t don’t worry too

much that’s where everybody’s somebody’s

interested in everything and anything

you could be interested in you will find

others but is absolutely stupid spend

your time doing things you don’t like in

order to go on spending things you don’t

like and doing things you don’t like and

to teach your children to follow in the

same track see what we’re doing is we’re

bringing up children the educated to

live the same sort of lives in them in

order that they may justify themselves

and find satisfaction in life by

bringing up their children to bring up

their children to do the same thing so

it’s all retching no vomit

it never gets them

and so therefore it’s so important to

consider this question what do I design

well when we answer that question in a

naive way we figure out that we want a

desire or what we want is to control it

with it to create girls that don’t grow

old apples that don’t rot clothes that

never wear out conveyance is that get

from one place to another instantly so

we don’t have to wait power available to

do anything that you could conceive and

do it just instantly like that to get

this funny technological omnipotence but

if you take time out to think about that

and really go into it with your full

strength of imagination and find out

whether that’s where you want to be you

will soon see that’s not what you want

because the moment you have a situation

where you are really in control of

things that is to say in which the

future is almost completely predictable

a completely predictable future is

already the past you’ve had it that’s

not what you want you want a surprise

and you don’t know what that’s going to

be because obviously wouldn’t be a

surprise if you did you want a pleasant

surprise but like you say what sort of a

surprise would be pleasant you can’t

really answer them because you know if

there are to be such things as pleasant

surprises that must also be unpleasant

surprises must be rude shops so you’re

like somebody taking a one of those

wishing well boxes you know tops you

know will you fish it and you bring out

a package and you don’t know whether

you’ve got a dead rat in it or a new

camera then that’s the way that’s that

seems to be the thing that really

excites people

but quite certainly there comes out of

this inquiry a feeling of real

disillusionment with the ideal of power

to be in power to be in control is not

something that any sensible person wants

people are frustrated in love we have

your children there’s a natural tendency

in the human being to see power is

substitute and that’s a very negative

thing is not having a bad temper

to see power after you are frustrated in

love you should try and get back on the

love beam because nobody wants power now

you may say that shirking responsibility

that if you were a really responsible

person you would go out for power and

try to use power it to the best possible

advantage for the benefit of all all

right what would be the benefit of all

ask them what do you want me to do with

this power

I’m dictator what would you like me to

do well nobody knows because they

haven’t thought it through

they think of all sorts of short-range

things and they are largely conflicting

and confusing because they’re not well

thought out but again when it finally

comes down to it nobody wants to be God