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The speed of joy is:

Patient.

I miss it.

Inspiring.

Dynamic.

Fruitful.

Welcome back to Best Advent Ever. I have this exercise I do when I'm going to speak. I try to summarize the heart of what I want to say in 10 words or less. I challenged myself to summarize the heart of what I'm trying to say in 10 words or less. And I was invited a few years back to speak at a fundraiser for a friend of mine. And about three months before they call me, confirm I'm coming, and tell me the topic of your speech is the secret of life. They're telling me this is the topic of my speech.

I might not even know what the secret of life is for all they know, but they decided this is the topic of my speech. So then I'm starting to think, all right, the secret of life. And then I'm, "Okay, 10 words or less," and I'm working on this. Usually, I get it down to six, seven, eight words, but it's this, I broke the record with this one. I got it down to four words. Four words. What is the secret of life? What are those four words? Want the right things. That's the secret of life. To want the right things. You see, desire directs our lives. The things we desire add to our joy or destroy our joy.

There is a relationship between the quality of your desires and the quality of your life. It's a relationship between the quality of your desires and the quality of your life. The thing about desire is, it's incredibly powerful. It's a human, it's a superpower, human beings, but desire has no morality, no ethics, no power of discernment, no any of that. Whatever we point our desire at, our desire will go at that with all it has. Our desire doesn't say to us, "Ah, this isn't a good idea." That's our conscience. That's our ethics. That's our morality. But once we point our desire at something, it is going to go after that with all it has.

So that's why it's very important that we discern what we are directing our desire towards, because the quality of our desires very often reveals the quality of our lives. Our desires are one of the major sources of joy and one of the major sources of our problems. Wanting the right things, or wanting the wrong things, will have an outsized impact on your life. You can want whatever you want, but the stakes are high, and the consequences are real when it comes to what we choose to focus our desires upon. It is critical to acknowledge that our desires are not all good for us.

Many things we have the capacity to desire can drain and destroy us, can prevent us from flourishing, can steal our joy. And the faster and busier your life is, the more likely you are to want the wrong things. What is the secret of life? The secret of life is to want the right things. What is it that you really want at this time in your life? Is it to slow down to the speed of joy? Is it union with God? Is it to grow in the ways that God wants to grow you at this time in your life? Or is it other things shallow and superficial? Your desire will go at whatever you point it on.

I want to encourage you to share this message with as many people as possible. Today, we want to give you six free copies of Slowing Down to the Speed of Joy so you can share them with your family and your friends. Click the button below. Have a great day. And remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.

Thank you, Ambassadors. You are changing the world. See you tomorrow.

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Bye-bye.

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Bye-bye.

Simon, come sit. I love you.

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See you next time.

Bye.

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