What do YOU want from life?

I was flipping through the paper yesterday, and came across a little blurb about Deepak Chopra's upcoming Toronto visit. Chopra is a celebrated, well-respected doctor and author, and is often considered "the poet-prophet of alternative medicine".
Anyway, as much as I've heard about this ground-breaking thinker, and as big a fan I am of his tweets, I cannot actually say I've read any of his books. But, there were a couple of quotes in this blurb that really stuck out to me:

"Slow down, then practice body awareness and meditation... Remain centered no matter what and breathe through it. Ask yourself, 'who am I and what do I really want from life?'..."

So simple, yet so profound. I donno about you guys, but I definitely can speak for myself when I say that is a fundamental question which I don't really know I've ever answered. I mean we all have our little existential moments in which we ask ourselves who we are- whenever we second-guess ourselves, kick ourselves in the ass for something we did or failed to do, or questioned an observation someone made about us. Then there are those of us who consciously look in the mirror and seek to find who we are-our essence, what distinguishes us from the rest of the human race.

But I doubt I am alone in realizing that I don't really ask what I want out of life. Its almost like when JFK famously said "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country", but in reverse. I mean we get caught up in so much bullshit that we're forced to think in a "me against the world" mentality. We can instantly come up with a list of shit that isn't working out for us, roadblocks we've met with, and failures we've experienced. I often find myself grumbling about how "idle" I feel in life, or wishing "this and that" were to happen.

The point is though, that sort of thinking, and a failure to clearly outline (if only to ourselves) what we WANT OUT OF LIFE is only gonna result in not getting what we want. I need to face myself, and be honest about what I want. What am I asking of the universe? (remember that old Bible psalm:"Ask and ye shall receive? Well, same idea). Only when we lay that out can we construct the path that might quickly reach us there. Having a vague idea of what sort of result you're looking for wont work either: I gotta know with every fibre of my being that THIS is what I want out of life- this is the end I hope to reach through means x, y, and z...


As one of my favourite lines in The Alchemist goes, "When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream."