“I want” versus “I need”

There are many times when we “want” something and there are also times when we “need” something. Just like people need money to run the family but they want to live in a nice giant house, have nice cars, and other luxuries. There is a big difference in these two contexts. When someone is in need of something, then it has some importance to that person. But when someone wants something, then that person can live without it and his schedule would not be harmed at all.

Our brain functions differently in both of these situations. When we need something, our brain functions differently and when we want something then our brain functions differently. When we need something, then our brain understands that without this thing a very big problem can occur. So our brain is ready to inculcate values related to that thing. But when we want something, then our brain does not count it as a necessity and so does not inculcate values related to that thing.

Children and teens especially have so many expectations. When they go to shops that have their desired items then they say, buy me this, and then find something else and say buy me this too and take tens of items home. This happens because they want to do that thing. You will see that most of the toys that they buy from the shops are just thrown away here and there in the house. But if you look at a student which is slightly more mature, like the students of secondary school and senior secondary school, the things that they buy are kept nicely and intuitively, because they know that they need those things.

When we want something, then our brain needs to be taught about its importance. Some of us like to learn music, so we have to teach our brain to learn music. But to learn to drink water, you will not need to teach your brain how to drink water, would you? This is because you want to learn music but you need to drink water.

Reasonable, right? So we want to learn or we need to learn. When we want to learn then our brain needs to be trained, but when we need to learn then our brain automatically comes there to learn. This is an instinct that we have developed through evolution.

There are some things that we need to learn and there are somethings that we want to learn. For example, there are things that we need to learn in the school to be an educated member of the society. But if we want a better computer for learning programming, then we want to learn in this scenario.

When we need something, then we automatically become disciplined towards it. Just like our parents have to reach their jobs on time, because if they delay or not come in their jobs then their salaries will be deducted. Our parents have automatically disciplined themselves because of this situation to reach their office on time. We only should be knowledgeable and disciplined to do so.

But when we want something, then we have to train our brain manually to become disciplined towards it. For example, if we want to learn music, then we have to make our mind disciplined enough so that it is ready to understand everything about the music. Manual control is required when wanting to learn.

Learning something new is never a bad thing. If you need to learn, or if you want to learn, it does not matter at all. Just you need some effort and regularity towards that thing to turn it from a hobby to a discipline.