God has discovered that the best way to punish a man for his sins is to give him too much of what he wants. – Gulliver’s Travels
May you get what you want. – Oriental curse
Beware of what you set your heart on, for you may get it. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
More tears have been shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers. – Teresa of Avila
These all make sense. But they’re hard to apply because we’re seemingly ‘wired’ to want what we don’t have. Getting what we want is only momentarily satisfying and then we’re soon off to wanting more, which only digs us deeper into the hole of dissatisfaction.
I want Real Joe to succeed, but if I cross over to thinking that I have to have that outcome, that I’m entitled to it, that not getting it is a catastrophe, then I’ll either be very unhappy if it fails, or very unhappy if it temporarily succeeds because I’ll likely be harming myself and others in order to make it happen.