Temptations In Life

We are very fortunate to live in this age and have such a wide selection of choices in almost everything in life, compared to any previous generation. However, do we appreciate our fortune? Do we appreciate the choices and opportunities we have? Are we happy?

Apparently not! Otherwise we wouldn’t have more and more stress-related health problems, increasing divorce rate, and climbing youth suicidal rate. It seems the more capable we are in satisfying our physical needs, the more unhappiness it creates. How come?

This is because, we have created so many temptations in life! If you turn on your TV, every eight minutes there is a three-minute long commercial telling you what you don’t have. If you check your mail box, there are stacks of mail sitting there already claiming they can satisfy a need which you may have never thought of before. Everyday there are new gadgets, new products and new services which promise can improve your life. How can you ever have enough, and how can you ever be happy, if you are reminded day after day that you life is always lacking of something?

Temptation creates desire, and desire leads to unhappiness. If we don‘t control our desires, we become unhappy because we lose freedom to be ourselves and become slaves of desires. An example would be getting oneself into debt to buy a fancy gadget by willingly relinquish his freedom (to a certain degree) to his bank. Don't get me wrong. I am certainly not against owning any possessions so long as you have earned it in the first place. Neither am I saying that the world is evil in letting us have choices from abundant supplies. However, there should be a limit. There should be a degree of self-control. Like a smorgasbord dinner, you can’t have everything no matter how delicious they all taste, otherwise you'll only get stuffed and suffer from self-indulgence.

While it may be a fact of life that temptations are created everyday, there are many things you can do to control your desire and resist the temptations. You can ignore the junk mail, for example. You can spend less time watching TV so you are less exposed to its commercials. If you do watch TV, still you can put the mute button on when the commercials start… Without these self-control measures, they are going to control you! They can steal your time, thoughts, energy and money, all of which are previous assets of yours.

When you make a purchase, pay attention to your motivations. Are you buying a new car primarily to satisfy your self-ego, or are you buying it for safe transportation? Do you really need the latest model of cell phone because you want to be trendy so that you can show off? If you are in the sales industry, you will have learnt that two human emotions are usually provoked: greed and fear. For example, lottery ticket is motivated by greed, and insurance is motivated by fear. Any decisions motivated by greed or self-ego cannot create true happiness because they can only give your temporary gratification and it’s a matter of time before a new desire emerges and makes you feel lacking again until you satisfy that desire.

Be aware of the temptations in life! What you really really want now may serve little benefit in the long run. The most trendy and enduring possession you can ever have is a pure heart free of desire and full of love. This heart will never be out of fashion, and will never disappoint you.