Since the time of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich over 70 years ago, desire has been inextricably linked to the attainment of goals. A burning desire, it was said, is the key ingredient in the realizing of our dreams and goals. Legions of contemporary personal development trainers have enforced this belief system.
Psychiatrist David R. Hawkins’ consciousness research illuminates the truth about desire. Desire, according to research, is only useful for the unmotivated, apathetic person who lacks the necessary energy within him to take action.
The reality is that most people pursuing goals, personal development, and self-growth—the higher needs on Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs—are already self-motivated.
For us, desire actually tends to block the manifestation of our goals. Why? Desire represents a destructive level of consciousness governed by a weak energy field. Think about what a truly starving person is willing to do to get food. Animalistic urges and primal programming run desire. These impulses don’t bring out the best in the human condition.
We need not feel guilty about having desires—they are innate to our humanness. Harnessing the energy of desire for the attainment of our goals, however, is counter-productive.
We all have had the experience of really wanting/desiring something, but giving up on it, only to see it materialize in our lives. The job or the relationship we wanted presented itself when we let go of the desire for it. And this is key: Identify what you want, but then let go wanting it. It may sound paradoxical, but try it and see what happens.
Here are a few things you can do to help transcend desire:
- Let go of wanting what you desire by realizing that you’re okay if you have it and okay if you don’t.
- Release your resistances around desire itself. A book like Patricia Carrington’s The Power of Letting Go can be a helpful guide.
- Come from a place of gratitude for what you have now. The energy of desire masks gratitude so we forget that we are complete and total at every moment.
- Instead of vilifying desire, identify and accept its presence as part of ancient programming. With total acceptance, you’ll find that you won’t be run by it anymore and will naturally begin to let it go.
You don’t need desire to attain goals or realize inner growth. Simply set your intention on what’s important to you and get out of your own way.