"What Do You Want?": A Painful Question in Difficult Times

We all go through difficult times in our lives. For example, we might experience a breakup or lose our longtime job. Or we might have an unexpected accident that now limits many aspects of our lives. All of these things force you to ask yourself a painful question that makes you rethink everything that, up until now, you took for granted: “What do you want?”

It’s not easy to answer this question. In fact, this question may surprise us, and we may feel very lost and unable to answer it. Because who really asks themselves what they want? Many times, we let ourselves go. We operate on autopilot. We’re so used to what we do that we don’t stop to analyze whether we’re actually happy.

But someday, something happens to us that forces us to ask ourselves this question. It’s as if until now we felt very comfortable and peaceful, but now have been violently removed from this comfort zone. Some people appreciate this situation and begin to enjoy life like never before. But others stay stagnated for a long time. They don’t advance at all.

“What do you want?”: A painful and decisive question

Perhaps you wonder why “What do you want?” is such a difficult and painful question. It’s because it’s decisive. It implies change and, as we all know, people tend to resist change.

Although change doesn’t always imply something negative, sometimes the things that cause a change are negative. Therefore, we see change in a negative way.

Let’s look at an example of a woman who experienced a car accident and lost her leg at a young age. Her name is Paola Antonini. She is currently a model, has a YouTube channel, and inspires many people who follow her, whether they have suffered an amputation or not.

Paola Antonini’s story

If we dig a little deeper into this young woman’s story, we’ll discover that she waited for almost an hour for an ambulance to arrive. She was fully aware of what was happening to her and suffered tremendous pain. But during that time, all she wanted was to stay alive.

Her recovery was very hard. The prosthesis hurt, but at least she could walk! Paola asked herself a painful question after her operation: “What do you want?” Currently, she travels a lot, always has a smile on her face, and encourages others. For her, the accident wasn’t a disgrace. It was an opportunity to redirect her life and live it in a much more intense way.

Taking a step toward change hurts

Maybe the question “What do you want?” isn’t painful. Maybe what’s painful is the change. However, many changes are positive and force us to leave behind behavior patterns that didn’t benefit us.

The fact that our partner left us can be an opportunity to put an end to the emotional dependence that we weren’t aware of. If we get fired from our job, it may be time to start or finish the project we “never had time for”. Each of us must discover what we have postponed and put aside and what really inspires us, and finally leave fear aside.

The answer to the question “What do you want?” may be crystal clear to us. The problem is that our fears keep us from taking action. In difficult times, it’s necessary to stop, take time to feel the pain, and make the decision that benefits us. Don’t avoid pain nor try to escape from it. Take a step and live that pain in order to transform it into hope, peace, and tranquility.