a desire for a desire..................

      One thing that distinguishes human beings from other animals is that we are evaluative creatures.  We can take a critical stance toward our own activities, and aspire to direct ourselves toward objects and projects that we judge to be more worthy than others that may be more immediately gratifying.  Animals are guided by appetites that are fixed, and so are we, but we can also form a second-order desire, "a desire for a desire," when we entertain some picture of the sort of person we would like to be—a person who is better not because she has more self-control, but because she is moved by worthier desires.

-Matthew B. Crawford, The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction