We don’t always know what we want

It is a truism that we frequently don’t know what we really want. We almost always have an answer when someone asks us, “What do you want?” but it doesn’t always reflect reality. This isn’t because we are dumb, it is because we ask for the first thing we can think of that might address any underlying needs. If we spend some time thinking about it, we realize that when we say we need a new car, the issues include: a desire to feel important, novelty, safety, boredom, and whatever we say the actual reason is. The underlying reasons we might have aren’t necessarily bad, but they tend to be unexamined.

One of the things you learn in research is to articulate what you are actually trying to find. If you are trying to get what you want or need, it is very helpful to know what that might actually be, rather than what you think it might be. If we are under the impression this is a modern phenomenon then we need to read 1 Samuel 8 again.

“Do we know what we want?” Knox Presbyterian (to download, right click and select “Save Link As . . .”)