General vs. Specific Conflicting Desires

I have two or more specific Desires that are so equally important to me that I cannot choose between them.

I have a Specific Desire that conflicts with my General OR I have two or more Specific Desires that conflict with one another.

We have General and Specific Desires. Our most General Desire is to obtain Sustainable Joy.

When we choose a more Specific Desire, it is important to hypothesize that when we obtain this Desire, we believe it will bring us a higher and more sustainable degree of Joy.

We don’t want to pursue Desires that provide temporary pleasure but result in more intense and virulent conflict. Most Desires that are truly valuable require us to sacrifice other things to obtain them. This causes us to experience pain in the journey but results in Sustainable Joy. Differentiating between the temporary pain of sacrifice and the ongoing virulent conflict of contraindicated choices is an essential ability to acquire.

We can view this more abstract concept by examining the principles of physical fitness. When we lift weights and engage in challenging cardiorespiratory activities, we experience a degree of pain. When we accept the pain and endure it well, the result is increased muscle mass and cardiorespiratory endurance.

But if we are trying to obtain those results by lifting too much weight all at once or running faster than we have strength, the result is injury. Once injured we cannot progress in our fitness journey until we are healed. And in some cases, we can sustain injuries that don’t heal, which prevents us from being able to obtain our initial Desire.

Thus, learning to differentiate between pain that is a warning us to stop or injury will result and pain that we need to endure.