The dichotomy seems quite self-explanatory, doesn’t it? A shallow desire would be a daydream about a missed opportunity like the perfect stock trade where I could’ve made millions of dollars. It feels silly to think about the “what could’ve been.” But it’s the superficial yearning associated with it that makes the daydream ever more enticing. 

A deep desire might be to build a self-sustaining and/or fulfilling business. Unlike a shallow desire, it isn’t some one-time event or thing. It has a weight to it. Doesn’t it sound obvious? It does. But most ideas are obvious and hard to execute—it could just be me.

The deep desire will take time. In fact, it’ll just take longer than any shallow desire. It’ll require lots of effort and practice. It’s the journey versus the destination idea.

What also takes practice is to look at what I find myself desiring. We are what we repeatedly do and the more my daydreaming is caught up by shallow desires, the more short-term I will think. 

Journaling has been one way I’ve been practicing this mindset. But this is a constant practice that’ll require conscious effort. It’s not enough to reflect it on it once in the morning. I’ll have to catch myself when I fall into the trap of shallow desires and—hopefully—tell myself these are shallow desires so let’s revert back to some deeper ones.