“We spend our time searching for security, and hate it when we get it”

This quote by John Steinbeck highlights the paradox of human desires. We desire and work for stability and safety, but once we achieve it, we often become bored or unsatisfied, and look for something new in our life.

We want a safe place to live, enough to eat, the ability to be financially secure in case something happens to us or our loved ones. Besides the ultra wealthy, we all have to work most of our lives to achieve those things; enough money for material needs, and work to make and keep a family together.

For most people, this pursuit is a lifelong endeavor. Many aren’t even able to achieve it. But the people who do very often feel not just a desire, but a necessity to have something new to direct their efforts towards. Waking up and knowing your house is paid off and you don’t need to do anything quickly goes from a luxury to a cause of crippling boredom.

I suppose that is how it has to be. If we didn’t feel the need to do anything more once we achieved security, we would just be stagnating once we got to that point. As long as you live, you are thinking and by definition doing.

What we mean when we talk about security is having what you need, or not being in danger of not achieving what you need, should you not accomplish your next life task. That desire does not mean sitting on your couch, watching TV or the sky the entire day, every day.

The perfect situation is being able to put all of yourself into something fulfilling. That way, you make your living, do something that matters to you, and feel like you have accomplished something and improved at the end of the day, each day. Not many people have that; usually people have to go to great strain to get by, and some are comfortable, but don’t have something they can put all of themselves into.

In a sense, we can never be completely satisfied, because that would mean we aren’t motivated to do anything more. But as long as we live, we must do. There must always be something to strive toward, something we want, but don’t have. While we live, we must do, and we can never be completely satisfied.