You do, in fact, have to know what you want

Acceptance is living in harmony with what is unchosen

In life, there are many paths before you. When you get to a fork in the road, you must answer a seemingly simple question: “What do you want?” This is the paradox. You must choose, with confidence, between options you know nothing about. You’ve never walked this trail before. Hardest of all, you can’t abdicate the decision. You do, in fact, have to know what you want.

But how? Don’t fake it until you make it. To proceed with false confidence is to live a distintegrated life; it is to choose multiple paths without truly walking any of them. The only way forward is to try, to fail, to stumble, to backtrack, and to try again.

You move to Boston; it wasn’t what you thought. You said “yes” to the proposal, and somehow everything changed. You chased some ancient treasure across the desert; the real treasure was the friends you made along the way.

Once you learn what you want, you can express what you want. Your vision bends into focus like a three-dimensional giraffe in a stereoscopic image. You transmogrify from an anthology of other people’s stories into your own monograph.

It doesn't have to be that special. What you want could even be everything-that’s-left-over when you figure out what you don't want. Or when you learn to desire nothing at all. Acceptance is living in harmony with what is unchosen.

But having figured it out your work is not done. You have to know what you want, and you must occasionally, be willing to forget. Because you are an endlessly forking trail yourself. Every time you choose what you want, you are, in a sense, choosing yourself.