What do YOU want?

What words popped out at you?  

Experience-Fun-Love

This was on one of my friends' Facebook walls a couple days ago.  I found my words and posted them as a comment, but I continued to think about the fun little exercise that night.  I've been asked this question a lot in my life.  I ask myself this question even more than I am asked it.

What do YOU want?

Love-Beauty-Youth-Success-Health-Experience-Popularity-Fun-

Happiness-Honesty-Friends-Power-Freedom-Intelligence

I want to know what I stand for.  I want to know what I want out of life.  I want to be able to reach for and attain what I want, but sometimes I don't know what that is.   Experience, Fun and Love are probably fairly accurate, but if I had to rank them after listing all of the possible answers, I would probably go with Happiness-Love-Friends. 

I would move happiness to the top because it's what I have to work the hardest at, but want the most.   Impossible expectations often lead to discontentment at anything less than what I view as perfection.  I have to really concentrate on accepting, forgiving, not passing judgment, letting go of the power, and releasing the pressure to attain perfection to be truly happy. 

I'm like this with, well, pretty much everything.  My most recent focus is the jiggles.  I'll probably never be fully "happy" with my body post children.  I used to have a sexy, flat stomach and now I have stretched out skin and stretch marks.  Even when I'm working out regularly and eating half way decent, I have a "Mommy pouch" and it DRIVES ME CRAZY!  I have an 'Andre the Giant', blood clot leg and cellulite. To reach the point of happiness with my body, I would have to be more accepting and not feel the need to have what I consider to be the perfect body.  That's tough though.  It takes retraining your brain to think differently.

Or, in relationships, what is happiness?  One of my friends was venting recently and admitted they wanted more.  More romance, more affection, more attention, to feel more wanted, more fairy tale, more alive, more challenged, more understood, more loved...More.  They admitted that their partner is making attempts to be more.  They are being honest by telling each other that they want more, but ultimately they will have to be more accepting, more forgiving, and release the pressure to attain perfection to attain happiness.  (I know because I've been here...and I'm sure I'll feel this way again...and again...and again;)) 

Happiness is hard, but it's what I want most.  

What do YOU want?