A Spark by Innocent Mwatsikesimbe from Questions Asked, chapter 6

A pursuit with no end can’t be finished — it can only be ordered. Needs and wants replenish faster than any life can meet them, so the real question is never whether to chase but which of them deserves first place. Left unranked, desires sort themselves by loudness: whatever demands attention most urgently gets it, whether or not it matters.

Innocent found his ranking tool in a single imagined wish: if one wish were guaranteed to come true, what would it be? Keeping only one meant weighing everything he wanted against everything else, and the weighing produced his answer — “a long and fulfilling career” in writing, the one need-and-want that holds the other elements of his life together.

The answer matters less than the weighing: “The benefits lie in the process and not just the answer.” One wish, honestly chosen, leaves the whole list in order — and a list in order is what makes an endless pursuit livable.