Transcript

One of the more curious aspects of the ways we are built is that it can take us a very long time indeed, to work out what we need in order to be happy. We might assume that the process was obvious what could be more straightforward than to want, we've obsessively been doing it since we were four years old and began a powerful campaign for an electric train or a set of farmyard animals.

The issue is not that we have no appetites, but that it can take such a long time for these to become either accurate or authentic. We start by wanting primarily according to what others around us want, which may mean that at varied ages, we acquire a bomber jacket, a barbecue set, a marriage, linen trousers, a career in finance, a juicer, a divorce, weekly Pilates lessons, and a six month cruise around the Pacific. It may be by our fourth or fifth decade before very gradually, we acknowledge just how unexpected personally flavored and distinct our characters and requirements really are.