Theme of Discussion Zoom Meeting: Want

Last updated 12/2/2023 Email: rgordon118@tampabay.rr.com

For several questions, I have provided links that will take you to related online information. Try coming up with your own thoughts first – then investigate the links or ignore them – whatever you wish. If the links don’t work with just clicking your mouse arrow, hold down your Ctrl key as you click. Any problem with a link, please let me know: rgordon118@tampabay.rr.com

In all our discussions, remember there is no need to attempt to respond to all the questions -- or even most of the questions. Feel free to choose for your discussion only those questions that appeal to you. Those who try to cover the most ground may well slip right over the questions that may prove to be the best seeds for germinating their own thoughts.

Questions:

1. What is your definition of want?

2. What are the differences between wants and needs?

3. What synonyms of want come closest to what you would prefer this discussion focus on?

4. What are typical wants in life?

5. What categories might you divide wants into?

6. Why might it be a good idea to make a list of your wants?

7. Should teachers be aware of the different cultural wants of their students? How can they gain this awareness?

8. Before deciding to become a close friend with someone, might it be a good idea to know the wants of your possible new friend?

9. What do you want most in life?

10. Are those who want less seem more likely to be happy?

11. Do men and women seem to experience different wants when it comes to the experience of shopping?

12. Make a list of your ten wants. If you are willing to share with us, what is the want that appears at the bottom of your list?

13. Might it be a good idea for family members to consider discussing what they want from being a member of a family?

14. Have you wants changed much during your adult years? What caused these changes?

15. Why might it be a good idea for a couple considering marriage to discuss what each wants most in life?

16. How true might this statement be? People who want the most are the least likely to find happiness?

17. Consider an organization you belong to – perhaps a religious congregation, a social or political club, a charity support association. Would it be a good idea for you to know what the greatest want is for each before choosing to become a member?

18. What do you want in a political leader?

19. Is it likely that the more you want the more dissatisfied, discontent you are with life?

20. In our discussion today, what new insight did you gain about “wants”? Perhaps you would prefer answering this question after reading the quotations below.

Quotations

1. “What we all want, really, is to be loved. That craving drives our worst behavior.”― Jodi Picoult, Handle with Care

2. “If you don't know what you want, you'll never find it. If you don't know what you deserve, you'll always settle for less.
You will wander aimlessly, uncomfortably numb in your comfort zone, wondering how life has ended up here.” – Rob Liano

3. “Modern man lives under the illusion that he knows 'what he wants,' while he actually wants what he is supposed to want. In order to accept this it is necessary to realize that to know what one really wants is not comparatively easy, as most people think, but one of the most difficult problems any human being has to solve. It is a task we frantically try to avoid by accepting ready-made goals as though they were our own.”― Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom

4. ”There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” -- Oscar Wilde

5. “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it” --. Dwight D. Eisenhower

6. “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.” -- Andrew Carnegie

7. “If we aren't careful, our children will come down with 'affluenza,' a disease that causes them to confuse wants and needs. We need to teach our children what my grandmother taught me: Think twice about spending money you don't have on things you don't need to impress people you don't like anyway.”-- Michelle Singletary

8. “I am no longer cursed by poverty because I took possession of my own mind, and that mind has yielded me every material thing I want, and much more than I need. But this power of mind is a universal one, available to the humblest person as it is to the greatest.” — Andrew Carnegie

9. “You need power, only when you want to do something harmful, otherwise love is enough to get everything done." -- Charlie Chaplin

10. “Discipline yourself to do the things you need to do when you need to do them, and the day will come when you will be able to do the things you want to do when you want to do them!”— Zig Ziglar

The End