“…but you can’t have everything you want.” Those wise words come from one of Barbara Sher’s life-planning books, I believe. The idea is that, if you devote yourself to it, you can achieve pretty much any goal you set your mind to — pretty standard stuff in that kind of book — but by the same token, there isn’t enough time to achieve every goal that might catch your fancy.

This was brought home to me a couple days ago, when I saw a note on LifeHacker about the pilot episode of an interesting-sounding TV show. I immediately wanted to watch it, and went to set my DVR-equipped desktop computer to record it… but paused to think first. When would I have the time and interest to actually watch it?

I haven’t been interested in sitting in front of a TV, passively absorbing whatever it throws at me, since I was a teenager. As far back as the late eighties, long before the popularity of the Internet, I preferred sitting in front of my computer and writing programs, or playing games, or reading a book. I didn’t even own a TV for years, and the only time I even turn one on now is to watch DVDs. If I recorded that show, would I ever get around to watching it? After a little soul-searching, I decided that I wouldn’t. It was a painful decision, but I felt a lot better after making it.

It’s easy to see the bad side of it: you don’t get to do all the things that you want to do. But it’s really the other side of the equation that’s the key, because you’re forced to clarify what it is you want most instead of accepting whatever comes into your head. It’s actively making a choice instead of passively letting one be made for you.

If everyone chose what they wanted to achieve in life, and pursued it instead of just “going with the flow,” imagine where the human race could be today.

It’s a sobering thought.