How many of the things you want today can you truly say are your desires, and not simply desires you've borrowed from someone you admire, envy, or aspire to become? It could be prestige. It could be money. It could be a certain physique. It could be status, influence, or even a particular lifestyle. But the real question is this: Which of your desires are truly yours? Aside from our basic human needs—food, shelter, safety—most of our wants are mimetic. We want them because someone else wanted them first. Because someone we admire, imitate, or compare ourselves to made them desirable. Don't get me wrong. We are creatures of imitation. We learn by imitation, we grow by imitation, and yes, we even imitate desires. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. The real question is: Who are your models? Who are you imitating? How are they shaping your desires? And how might they be pulling you away from what you would have genuinely wanted if no one else had shown you the way? These are questions worth asking. Why do I want the things I want? Answer that question honestly, and you may discover an entirely new way of understanding yourself and everyone around you, and it would allow you make decissions that you would not later regret. We all talk about the Rat race, but we are the biggest Rats and the Race track is our Desires.