Have you ever noticed that something can be fun, but leave you with an empty feeling the next day? Often times fun is instantaneous, and does not take any effort or planning. It is the trill of the moment. The promise of pleasure, of feeling good. It is the end product without the process. Fun, at its worse, can leave us sick in the soul.

Satisfaction is the attainment of basic human needs. It is engaging and has meaning. As defined by Abraham Maslow, safety, protection, belongingness, love, respect, self-esteem, identity, and self actualization are human needs. A loss of these basic needs causes illness or neurotic behavior. It is easy to fall prey to pleasures like materialism, sex, drugs, over eating, or other unhealthy distracting behaviors that block our more meaningful goal of self growth. Pleasure in and of itself does not lead to a happy life.

Napoleon Hill said that it is the process that is the most rewarding and satisfying. It is in the process that we create and use all of who we are to attain a goal or vision. It is in the process that we gain a sense of meaning in our lives, a motivating, driving, energizing, vital purpose to our life. Ultimately, for this journey to have lasting humanistic value it must be greater than self, and be of service to others.

So perhaps "living in the moment" needs to be prefaced by living consciously. Living in the moment does not serve us well when we come from irresponsibility, or we are not being true to our values. Being conscious of who we choose to be, and honoring our choices, and that of others, can be both fun and more satisfying. We do not sacrifice one for the other, but create a way of being that envelops both.

Fun is fleeting. Satisfaction brings joy and blissfulness. Satisfaction is a movement towards a more progressed self. It is the choice to take the steeper path towards self growth rather than stay in place, or regress from fear. Perhaps sometimes fun is escapism and satisfaction is bold self work. Perhaps fun is not the peak experience. It certainly can not be sustained. Could we really survive hour after hour of pure pleasure without exploding. The gift of satisfaction is that it bestows on us a measured blissfulness created through our daily conscious efforts to be a reflection of our higher self.

Danielle Vindez holds the vision of optimal health, conscious eating, proper exercise, and mental balance, for all those seeking to transform their lives. For more see http://www.defineyourself-coaching.com/secondarypages/newsletter.html