What drives you each day to do the things you do? What motivates you and why? What is it about your life that is so special to you and what do you get out of living it? These are questions we seldom ask of ourselves. We go through our lives in a very routinely way. Our basic needs must be met of course, what we will eat, how we obtain food and shelter. Outside of these base things what else do we think we need and why? When we are born we have only one instinct for survival and that is food and drink. It is only as we grow in whichever society we happen to be that other factors come into play. We discover that to get what we need we must conform to a set of rules. This then drives us along as we attempt to fit in. If we don’t follow the rules we don’t survive. This makes us ambitious so we strive to do our best. Some people however want to go a few steps further and are never satisfied with their lives, always striving to reach a horizon that moves further away as each step is taken. What is the point in being over ambitious? Some people are never satisfied and they have to accumulate more and more things. For some people it is money which drives them endlessly forward. If you read Scripture it warns us of the futility of acquiring too much during our lifetime. At the end of the day all the wealth we have accumulated passes to someone else! Our basic needs in life should be enough for us and we should be satisfied with little rather than with much. It is nice of course to be comfortable and have that feeling of security but how easily we can be robbed of everything we’ve got. I know a person who has accumulated great wealth and has become so security minded that the outside of his house has enough floodlights and cameras fitted to satisfy a prison. He obviously has alarms too and the perimeter walls and electrically operated gates make it just as secure. If he had nothing but his basic needs he would not have to worry about theft. Once we travel down that road we are lost. So why do we do it? Why do we accumulate things when most of the time we have no need of them? Why do we live in a dream world? The best things in life come without a price-tag. The simple things in life give more pleasure than those which cost a fortune and we don’t have to worry about them. It might we worthwhile to evaluate our priorities occasionally so that we don’t fall into the bottomless pit where there is no hope.

Shirley Anne

I was just looking at a program about children’s ambitions. Do you remember the ambitions you had when young? Did you have any at all? Many of us would admit to having ambitions in our past but how many of us have fulfilled any of them? The only main ambition I ever had was to transition and be able to live as the woman I always knew I was. If I had any other ambitions they were transient even if they were realised. I cannot think of any major ambition other than that which I have stated, that I might have had. Every day brought something new into my life and I suppose my course in life has adjusted accordingly. Situations encourage change and we can be sent off course quite easily. It takes dogged determination to fulfill a lifetime ambition sometimes for many things can get in the way. I can say that there have been many ‘new horizons’ in my life but eventually I reached my goal. Have you reached your’s yet or is it still an ambition?

Shirley Anne

In previous posts (‘Something Different’ and ‘Needs and Wants’) I talked about ambition now I continue the theme with this question, ‘How far are you prepared to go to get what you want’? It may be a job, an object or even a person! At what point do you give in or are you the type of person who will perservere until that desire is met? We can say that some things are unreachable but are they really? I have friends who are transitioning transsexuals and they are fulfilling a lifetime desire to get their bodies changed in keeping with their gender identities. I know others who are working hard to better themselves in their chosen professions and are making the necessary sacrifices to achieve their goals. I know others who have taken the bull by the horns, started a business and are slowly making progress. They are all prepared to go that extra mile to obtain what they want in life. How far is too far when you want something?

Shirley Anne x