WHAT DO YOU ASPIRE?

I recently posted Forbes’ Top 15 Richest People to drive us all into striving for our aspiration. It's seldom that we get hold of a great understanding of seeing the bigger picture of what life has in store for us. Usually, what we aspire the most are the hardest to achieve. Hence, I came up with a theory to keep our sanity intact and not fall into despair. I encourage you to put your dreams of material things such as a mansion, a billion dollar worth of savings or a yacht, down a notch. As I learned from my one of my favorite books (The Rules of Life), let's start aspiring for something within your reach at a given specific time. And whatever it is that you have in mind, you aspire it now because it can give you SATISFACTION one way or another. 

Right now, let's name that aspiration as "SATISFACTION". Again, I repeat, you can think of anything as long as it gives you the right balanced amount of it.


Let me share to you something that made sense of it all to me.

When I was still in college, I completely understood two facts about man.

First, that man is a complex being as I was playing “The Sims”. Yes, an online game helped me out, particularly, a simulation/role playing hybrid game.You start off with creating your sim (a.k.a. avatar) by completing its whole well being; Namely, psychological attributes, as far as aspiration is concerned, and physical appearance, ETC. It's like taking care of it, nurturing it, making it learn and making it build relationships. I was surprised how my sim represented myself you know. But what really caught me to analyze was that, how my sim reflects the ASPIRATION that I assigned to it.

ASPIRATION is the personality attribute that determines your sim’s wants and fears.

         You have to choose just one amongst these:

           1.      Knowledge   
           2.      Fortune

           3.      Romance

           4.      Family

           5.      Popularity

Realistically, we aspire on at least one of these. I chose Family for my own. That's what I would aspire I told myself. Relating it to SATISFACTION, for now, my family makes me satisfied as long as I could provide for them, as long as they don't starve and that they're healthy, I am satisfied.

It also allows you to choose its zodiac sign in which certain likes and dislikes are predetermined accordingly. But they’re adjustable as to how you want to support the aspiration you choose. Along with the zodiac sign that you choose for your sim would be the attitude that a certain scorpion, taurus, or virgo for example, would most likely dwell to.

Of course, other things will come next. Choosing how your sim looks like, you'd dress it up and build it a house. Feed it, let it rest and bathe it, ETC.,.

Being a keen observer and being an over analytic, I started asking myself of my own aspiration. For  In order to level up in this game, you’ve got to establish relationships well. First of course, you’ve got to get a job. And one huge factor to get promoted was to get social and gain friends. Hence, income increases and it allows me to buy lovely furniture that you'd find cute. You get to design, choose among a wide array of recreational stuff and even make your sim go downtown for the social and fun meter to go green.

In gaining friends, this becomes relatively easy when you have same likes and share a common thing with another sim. The best way is to find a neighbor who desires the same aspiration as yours. If you get lucky and comes across with somebody who has the same aspiration with you, intimate relationship is possible. 

Your sim owns a wellness meter. When it shows green, your sim is happy. When it goes red, you need to find what makes your sim unhappy. Is his comfort compromised? Does he need a friend to talk to? or Is he tired? Just what in real life would make you feel off, you've got to avoid that. Otherwise, it'll die. Amazingly, when I agreed to a boyfriend for my sim to marry, the energy meter goes white and blinking... probably a state of ultimate ecstasy? And promotion comes in, I get to renovate my house, make it bigger and complete with state of the art appliances and furniture. Of course, you need to get up on time, fill your mind with ideas and increase the necessary skill meter required of your job. (Logic for a mathematics professor, well-versed in magazines and having elite friends for a model and fit body for a policeman) And so on and so forth.


So, witnessing all of these, it all boils down to another realization about man. 

Humankind (Yes! All of us in general!) never gets satisfied. 

That state of ultimate ecstasy doesn't stay that long. The wellness meter after several hours just goes back to green once again. And it surprises me that my sim seemed complete of what he needed as far as BASIC things are concerned (food, sleep, sex); All the necessary learning had to be built. Logic by playing chess, Cooking meter by cooking for friends, and a lot more. Until such time that the game builders came up with a lot of other simulations to innovate the game. There's Sims 2, Sims 3, Sims University, Sims Vacation.... I could go on and on about every expansion pack they got. I guess the Sims too, live up to the cliche, "Life goes on."


I came across a book that talked about man's pursuit to happiness. It mentioned about a high percentage of respondents, when asked of what they want in life, speaks of being happy. But to think about it, what makes you happy? Because I tell you my friend, being happy is such a HUGE goal. What makes you happy exactly? A boyfriend? An entertainment showcase? A house and lot? Because to some people, a bath could be so rewarding as well compared to your other wants like jewelry, travel opportunities and/or a BMW . Today, I suggest, we put it down a notch. And aim for SATISFACTION. It removes too much expectation, excess baggage and it would give you wonders beyond your imagination with the first two mentioned set aside. After all, we're not the sims.