There are four goals planted so far. I planted three of them. There is a temptation to add my "to-do" list items to the field but so far I have been able to fend off that temptation.
The plan now is to add this post and update it a few times to instead of always adding a new post. There have been a lot of ideas about what this post could be about today. The winning thought is "needs or wants".
Things we need are, food, water, shelter, companionship, and purpose. These are my ideas of basic needs so please feel free to comment on your impression of this list. The tricky part is coming up with how we obtain these needs. It makes sense that we either have a way to provide these for ourselves or someone to provide them for us. A child should have these needs provided for them. This implies that a parent must have a way to provide these for their child as well as themselves. A strong case could be made that a job is a need. Let's pretend that we are not from a wealthy family or receiving a subsidy for the government or church.
A job is really "a means to acquire money or produce goods for trading". It isn't necessary that someone works for someone else in order to make money. A traditional job is the most common way to provide for yourself.
The list is now:
- Food
- Water
- Shelter
- Companionship
- Purpose
- A job/means to earn money
Wants are pretty easy to come up with. Almost everything else in our lives is a want. There are things that we might not want to do without (cell phone, internet connection, Rolex watch) but they are things we can live without.
Day II - sticking with the same blog entry.
This isn't as much fun or as interesting as I thought it would be. Comments are needed for inspiration! I will continue on for at least a week. There is another idea wondering around in my head but I'll save it for later.
A quick review of my day leaves me thinking that I'm very luck not to be missing anything on the list of needs. In fact, writing this entry indicates that I'm pretty lucky in the list of things wanted too. The list of things we absolutely need is pretty short compared to the list of things most of us have just because we wanted them. A phone is pretty handy to have and a strong argument can be made that most of us need one, at least one in our home for emergencies (like ordering pizza when the fridge is empty).
Let's stick with the phone for now. One in the home really sounds like good idea. A lot of us have a phone in at least half of the rooms in our house. A lot of us have at least one cell phone for everyone in the house. This trend is pretty new but some of my friends have more than one cell phone just for themselves.
I remember when we only had one phone in the house for a family of four. The next big trend was having two phones on one line in the house. Today it is common to see three phones included in the box when you buy a phone (wireless).
Back to my point or at least something like a point. Any need can quickly become blurred into a want. No one would argue that we all need food. Most of us need around 2,000 calories a day to remain healthy. The problem is when we want to eat two or three times that amount in a day.
Make sense?
Day III - A million to give away! A million goal spots that is. OK, I'll stick with the original goal of 100,000 goals per crop. Getting a comment left on this blog and thousand hits on the main website would be cool. These are wants not needs unless fun is a need.
Is fun a need?
There have been studies that show we benefit from laughter. Lower blood pressure or something like that if I remember correctly. Fun seems to help me. Think I'll go work on a picture/logo for the goal farm. That will be fun to do.
See ya'll tomorrow.
Day IV - As the post turns
Today is a day without any needs. Even the weather has cooperated by being a fantastic day. Today also marks the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. I am at a complete loss when it comes to relating those actions to a need or a want.
This might seen naive but I tend to think of all goals being positive in nature. We want to do something to make things better for ourselves and those around us. The goals set into motion for 9/11 lacked anything remotely positive.
Day V - not too much time left to hang out here
Sticking to one post for a few days is harder than I thought it would be. I'm not sure that even with having comments posted if I'd find the desire to stick with the same post. Sure, the basic thought behind this post was "what are needs compared to wants?". Today will mark over 1,000 words about this subject but it didn't inspire even on comment being left. This is, right here, GOAL, that was word 1,000 for this post. I have no idea what the limit is but it isn't 1,000. There are two more days left sticking with this post. This was a self imposed rule that I'm sticking with just because I made the rule. It doesn't make that much sense now but it was one idea to bring folks back to this website. Tomorrow's update to this post will be more of the same but day VII should be more interesting.
If you don't want to leave a comment you can contact me by email farmer@theGoalFarm.com with your suggestions.
Day VI - Needs and wants, the Saga continues
Food, water, a place out of the elements and some pocket change. Most of us spend a lot of time an effort putting together our resumes. It can be a challenge to keep a resume brief as you gain experience and wish to sell yourself to an employer. It is simple but the most straight forward resume these days is "Will work for food". This states that we are available and why we want to work for someone. I'm not aware of any employers that pay in food and it is doubtful that the IRS will accept there portion of the pie (pun intended).
My point for today is simple. We work for food and our basic needs first. All the rest of the things we gather is a bonus to enrich our lives. We all pick what enriches us. You might pick a big screen TV or you might provide sponsorship to a hungry child.
Day VII - last update for this post
The new idea starts tomorrow. The picture below is related to a goal that will be discussed starting tomorrow.
The is an x-ray of my right arm taken today (9/14/2010). It was broken on 4/18/2008). Use of it is still limited but resolving this issue has been set into motion. Full range of motion in my right arm again is "The Goal". Turn in tomorrow for an update.
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