Kick the Tires of Your Desires
Last week, a phrase from a book titled Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Life, stood out to me. The author Luke Burgis describes the career trajectory of a famous French chef and writes that the chef “kicked all the tires” of his desire to work as a chef before he fully committed to it. He did this by running tests to see how deep his desire went. For example, since his family already owned a restaurant, he completed a degree in economics before working fulltime in the restaurant in order to make sure that he wasn’t just opting for the default. He also persevered through the many challenges he encountered along the way to becoming a three-star Michelin chef. Today, the chef is so successful that he’s given back his three stars to Michelin so that he can cook independently of the external pressure of critics.
All of us have desires. We like to think that we know what we want. We don’t often treat our desires with skepticism. Sometimes, the result of this is that we indulge a particular desire for so long that it persists not because it is something that we actually want but rather, because we are on auto-pilot. Watching TV shows in the evening, or going to a certain restaurant, or remaining in an unsatisfying career can all be examples of routines that continue because of unquestioned desire. Another result is that sometimes we wallow in desire, idling away time and energy, thinking about a future that would eventually fulfill us. A man who says he wants to be married but is unwilling to do what it would take to attract a spouse is an example of this sort of thing. This week, I invite you to survey your desires and test how deep they go.
What’s something in your life that you once desired but perhaps is now only around because of the force of habit? What is a safe way that you can temporarily fast from this thing to test your desire for it?
What’s something you’ve desired for a long time but have not yet attained? What difficult thing could you do to prove its worth and to test how deeply this desire goes?
God Bless,
Dan
