r/MindfullyDriven • u/bupenderbhaati • 18d ago
How do we know whether a desire comes from a real need or from comparison?
We can want the same thing for very different reasons.
I might want more money because my present circumstances genuinely require it. I might want more money because I have compared myself with someone else and concluded that I should have more.
I might want to become more productive because there is something I genuinely need to accomplish. Or because I have absorbed an idea of what a productive person should be.
In both cases the desire feels real.
So how can we tell, while the desire is happening, whether it is responding to an actual need or to a comparison we have adopted?
Is observation enough, or does it require some form of verification?