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11 Insights of Highly Successful Individuals

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Have you ever considered that what you want isn't always what you want?! How could that possibly be?

Consider the following:

You go to bed at night and you say to yourself: I'm sick and tired of sleeping my Sunday away. Tomorrow I'm getting up - crack of dawn, bright and early. I'll jump out of bed and go for a jog, take a shower, and smile at everyone I see during the day!

So, the next morning the alarm goes off. You reach over to the alarm to find that delicious snooze button.

Five minutes later, the alarm goes off again, and you reach over for the snooze button again. At that point a voice inside you says - but didn't you want to get up early today and go jogging?

Yeah, but just another five minutes and I'll have so much more energy...

So five minutes later, you're reaching over for the snooze button again...the voice says: but didn't you say you're going to get up?

Yeah, but I think I'm too tired today - tomorrow will be a much more appropriate day!

At that point, the struggle is on: What you want is to get up and live life to the full. What you feel like is just pressing that snooze button, putting things off till tomorrow and going to sleep.

The Last of the Diets

Imagine you just started your new and latest diet. This time you are determined to succeed. This time it's really going to work.

So you go to your friend's engagement party and...somebody ordered your favorite strawberry cheese cake. You assure yourself - although you really like it, you're just not having.

"But it's your favorite..." a small but coaxing voice inside of you mentions.

No.

"But just this once..."

Absolutely not.

"Just a small piece..."

Yeah, you said that last time!

"This time a really mean it!"

The Battle of Life

Within each of us, a fierce battle is raging constantly. It's the battle between what you really want and what you feel like doing. It's really a battle between the cravings of your body and the aspirations of your soul.

There are times when you know objectively that something is good for you, but your physical desires get in the way and distort your outlook.

Here's how the battle-lines break down:

You want to live life to the fullest: to give, to care, to utilize you potential, to love everyone, to be productive, to accomplish, to be great, to confront challenges, to embrace reality and truth.

On the other hand, you feel like quitting, putting things off till tomorrow, getting someone else to do it, taking the easy way out, escaping, going to sleep, not putting in the effort right now.

In truth, every moment of existence faces us with this choice - between what we really want and what we feel like.

Good and Bad

Judaism says that this is really what free will is about. People don't choose to be bad. No one gets up in the morning and says: "Today I'm going to be thoroughly bad." No one wants to be evil. They just choose to do what they feel like rather than what they truly want.

Life and Death

Judaism says: I put before you Good and Evil, blessing and Curse, Life and Death, choose Life so that you may live.

The choice of free will is really between life and death - not good and evil. How do we choose to "die" rather than "live?" When we choose to do what we feel like rather than what we want, we effectively choose to switch off our faculties, not to utilize our potential, to cop out, to "kill time," to opt for momentary comfort rather than putting in the effort for real and lasting pleasure. In this way, we choose death over life.

When we understand that we can maximize our own experience of life by doing what we want rather than what we feel like, we can begin to choose the life that we really want. This choice will give us the greatest pleasure, the fullest sense of being ourselves and of being alive.