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\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 There is an old joke about a mother who wakes up her son and says: Honey, you have to get up.\\xa0 It\\u2019s time to go to shul.\\xa0 The son resists.\\xa0 I don\\u2019t want to go to shul. I want to sleep.\\xa0 Honey, you have to go to shul. I don\\u2019t want to go to shul. I want to sleep.\\xa0 You can\\u2019t sleep.\\xa0 You have to go to shul. \\xa0\\xa0Give me one good reason.\\xa0 Give you one good reason?\\xa0 What about: you\\u2019re the rabbi!

\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 What do we do about the things we don\\u2019t want to do?\\xa0 It\\u2019s easy to respond to the things we want to do. Want to go to the Taylor Swift concert? Yes. Want to go watch the Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics or Bruins? Yes. Want to go away to the Berkshires or Cape or Martha\\u2019s Vineyard with your loved ones? Yes. But what about the stuff we don\\u2019t want to do? \\xa0Two things are both true, and they cut in opposite directions.

\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 One, people like doing what they want to do when they want to do it, not what they feel they have to do.\\xa0 Like the rabbi in the joke who does not want to have to go to shul, we resist what we have to do and gravitate towards what we want to do.

\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 But two:\\xa0 if all we do is what we want to do when we want to do it, that is an inconsequential life.\\xa0\\xa0 If you think about the people you really admire, if you think about the funerals you have been to that leave you inspired, it is never because somebody focused on their own needs. Rather we admire people who sacrifice their energy, time and peace of mind to pursue some greater good.

\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Thus our dilemma.\\xa0 We like doing what we want to do. But a worthy life means doing what we don\\u2019t always want to do. \\xa0How do we thread this needle?