I Want What I Want and I Want It NOW!!!

“I want what I want and I want it now!” is a favorite mantra for most addictive personalities. Actually across the United States, it’s a favorite mantra for most everyone.

I know a young couple. They are both college professors and they are lucky enough to be working at the same university. But they hate the city they are living in. They’ve sent out dozens of resumes, but nobody is knocking the door down to hire them. And they’ve made the conscious (or maybe unconscious) choice to be miserable about it all. Why? Because they want what they want and they want it now—and, unfortunately for them, the world isn’t responding to their demands.

Common sense has something to say about this. First it shows how spoiled and impatient we are. Instead of making unreasonable demands, instead of choosing to be miserable, this couple could be focusing what they do have. For example, they have each other in a good marriage. They also have good jobs in their chosen professional fields at a time when many recent college graduates in the United States aren’t as fortunate. Many college grads are working at McDonald’s or some other low paying service job that doesn’t even require a degree. And in addition, this couple also has time on their side. They’re young. They have plenty of time to eventually find the right positions at the right university in the right town.

But instead of being happy with what they do have, they are unhappily demanding what they can’t have—yet. Life is about enjoying what you do have. But we seldom live that way because we are always placing impossible demands (expectations) on life, and those unmet demands transform our happiness into misery.

If you are placing unreasonable demands on life-- and your Higher Power—STOP IT! Stop wanting what you want (and can't have) and wanting it now. Life doesn’t work that way. Instead of choosing to be miserable by demanding what you can’t yet have, choose to be happy with all that you are currently blessed to have in your life.