Guided by Values not Desires

I recently attended a talk on mental health awareness and during the talk the speaker asked the audience (most of them were students) to share their desires in terms of what they want to be in their career and achieve out of it. A young girl from the rural area stood up to share her desires and the whole set of audience were duly entertained by her reply as what she spoke did not seem achievable rather it was more a dream than a desire.

I was contemplating on it for a long time since then and felt that the present generation is guided too much by the desires rather than the values. Values are the set of beliefs we hold strong to guide us through the vast array of choices to make decision of choosing the one that fits our value system. But when the world around us starts to glamourise the objects of desire as the real goal of life, we get misguided and end up making choices to fulfill our desires rather than living the life of our own value system and beliefs handed over to us by our family and our mentors.

The whole system of decision making gets hijacked and its all about feeling unfulfilled and at times guilt and shame overpowers our joy of living as we feel that what we are doing is too self centric and momentary and not what you ought to be doing. But if your values dictate your decisions in life, you may feel at times unable to live up to the desires created by the world around you but will surely feel complete in living your life guided by what your heart and mind could accept right as well as good.