You are what your deep, driving Desire is.
As your Desire is, so is your Will.
As your Will is, so is your Deed.
As your Deed is, so is your Destiny
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
It is desire that drives life.
And our desires drive us.
If desires arising from our lower nature dominate, we continually seek all the things of the external world.
Chasing one thing after the other, the void within remains, as our desire is misdirected toward that which can never truly satisfy us.
Unbeknown to most though, what we really seek is obliteration of the separate egoic self and total absorption in the bliss of union with the true Self / Soul. This union is described in yoga as sat chit ananda.
The appropriate aim for all of us ultimately, particularly in the later phases of life, is to come closer to this true Self and to know the Self as God and one with all existence.
Once we set the appropriate course, our task is to redirect our straying desires for pleasure, immediate gratification, comfort and material objects to desire the ultimate experience, the ultimate high, union with all of existence. Integration of the small self with the true Self.
While our aim and our desires are in conflict, we will constantly struggle against ourselves, acting in contradictory ways and holding ourselves back.
When our deepest desire aligns with our aim however, we have set an irrepressible path to Self-realisation. God realisation. Unity with all of existence. And this alone can provide the lasting peace and joy we seek.