The power of addiction

As I continue on this path of emergence, I've been heavily re-evaluating my lifestyle choices as well as examining the choices I have made in the past. What I find really interesting about myself, is that I always have this "need for a project" type of mentality. Now I can't figure out if this is a result of an addictive personality (what is this anyway?) or the result of a passion for life itself. Early on in my life, I was unable to control this compulsion and made the easy and ignorant choices of drugs and alcohol, followed by addictions to technology, and even addictions to learning. Lately, I have been addicted to fitness, but I fail to see how that's a bad thing. However, I had a sort of epiphany today when it hit me, "If I took the fascination and addiction I have for life, and applied it to meditation and union with the divine, I could cut a lifetime or more off my path to the summit!" Just think about it, how much time do we put into meaningless activities because they promise to make us feel good? Don't those moments when we connect with God give us the same or a better feeling? I consider it a sort of doubling our efforts because we can put our mental, emotional, and spiritual energy into something that not only will return the favor, but can also provide us with more motivation and inspiration.

Now, what does this mean to you and I? For many of us, we have jobs and families that we owe an obligation to. Sure, these are wordly obligations, but to goal of maintaining karmic peace and/or removing ourselves from karmic consequences requires us to make positive action that would not hurt others. So although we cannot quit life and go into a cave and devote ourselves to meditation, we can take the urges we get to jump into something and instead transfer that power into meditation. I don't see there being any reason we cannot push ourselves to get the most out of our short lives as possible, both for ourselves and our families, but if we can remember to transfer just a little bit of that energy into our own introspection, we can cut years off our path to enlightenment. I've found that every bit of time I invest in my spiritual future, is paid back with more insight and motivation than I can handle, and maybe that's the key.