How long can you go without saying "I want"?

He who desires is always poor. -Claudianus

I've been trying a little experiment, and it's not going so well.

I was attempting to see if I could go one week without saying the words "I want ...". I thought it wouldn't be that bad.

Look, don't get me wrong. I don't want to be an ascetic. I don't want to live in a monastery only eating rice and wearing my only possession.

But I thought, too many of us can probably go a week without saying things like "I love you" or "Thank you", which sucks. So maybe saying "I want" for a tiny little while wouldn't be so bad and would be good for me.

I couldn't go 24 hours.

Now, I wasn't breaking it like a kid in a toy store. But I was breaking it. There'd be things I'd say like "Oh, I want to eat there, maybe we should plan that next week". Or "I want to fix that bug in the software".

I bet you can't do it for a week either :) But it would be neat if you could. So try.

Try, for just one week to not say "I want something". That doesn't mean you have to not want things. It just means you can't talk about your wants using the typical language with people. You can still tell people you plan on purchasing an iPad one day, just don't tell them you want one.

And leave a comment here in our blog please to let us know how it's going.

I think what this might accomplish is point out actually how often you want things. How often you're sitting around on a perfectly fine sunny day with your very best friend around you and you still want something.

I think recognizing how often we want things might help us temper that desire a bit. And tempering desire probably leads to feeling much more content. And contentment seems to be everyone's ultimate desire.