The cycle of lust mechanism#

I’ve noticed something about myself, and about people in general: no matter how much gratitude we feel today, there’s always a quiet hunger for more.

I can say thank you for what I have, I can feel blessed for the small victories, but deep inside there’s still a restless voice. A whisper that says: this isn’t enough.

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            Desire
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              *
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             *|*
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            * | *
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    Gratitude | Dissatisfaction
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            * | *
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             *|*
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              *
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           Pursuit
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              *
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             *|*
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            * | *
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 Consequences | Restlessness
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            * | *
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             *|*
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              *
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          New Desire

The Nature of Human Desire#

We are not prophets, not saints, not philosophers who have transcended material longing. We are ordinary humans. And ordinary humans get bored. We grow numb. We crave.

Gratitude is real, but so is dissatisfaction.

• After achieving something, we immediately look for the next.
• After resting, we feel restless again.
• After being content, we start comparing ourselves to others.

It’s not hypocrisy. It’s mechanism. The way life keeps us moving forward.

My Own Confession#

I’ve had days when I felt deeply grateful — for family, for fate, for health. But even in those moments, I caught myself scrolling, dreaming, imagining something bigger. A better future, a higher achievement, a different life.

And I felt guilty. Guilty for wanting more when I already had enough. But maybe that guilt is misplaced. Maybe wanting more is simply part of being human.

The Price of Satisfaction#

But here’s the part we rarely admit: satisfaction has a cost.
To chase it, we pay with time, energy, and sometimes relationships.

• We sacrifice sleep for ambition.
• We trade peace of mind for comparison.
• We risk losing gratitude by focusing too much on what we don’t yet have.

And the consequence? Satisfaction is fleeting. The moment we reach it, it shifts. What once felt like “enough” becomes the new baseline, and the hunger begins again.

It’s like climbing a mountain only to see another peak waiting beyond. The climb never ends.

The Illusion of Superiority#

We all share the same definition at the core: human.
Yet we try so hard to appear superior, to stand taller than others. We chase status, wealth, recognition. Because without something to hold, without something to show, we fear being nothing.

Humans without anything… feel like nothing.
And that fear drives us.

Reflection#

So yes, humans will never be fully satisfied. Even when grateful, we still want more. But perhaps the lesson isn’t to kill desire — it’s to understand it. To see it not as a flaw, but as a force.

Gratitude grounds us. Desire moves us. Together, they create balance.
Without gratitude, we become greedy.
Without desire, we become stagnant.

But we must also remember: every satisfaction has its price. And the consequence of chasing endlessly is forgetting to breathe, forgetting to rest, forgetting to honor what we already hold.

Closing Image#

I think of human desire as fire.
Contained, it warms us, gives light, cooks our food, keeps us alive.
Uncontrolled, it burns, destroys, consumes everything in its path.

Gratitude is the hearth that holds the fire.
Desire is the flame that keeps us moving.
And being human means learning how to tend the fire — not to extinguish it, not to let it rage, but to keep it alive in balance.