Reaching higher

With each goal achieved and ticked off of the list, continuing to be motivated can become challenging.  But if we think of this challenge as an opportunity to set higher and more meaningful goals, we can stay motivated and continue to move forward in our progress.  How can we set goals that are attainable yet enough of a stretch so we feel that great sense of accomplishment?  First we can look at what would be just acceptable to us, in terms of a minimal accomplishment.  This is something that could be done easily without much effort, but wouldn't quite give us that great "Ahhhh, I did it!" feeling.  Then, we go to the other extreme and look at the Mega Super Big Time Goal which if we accomplished would seem like the best thing ever (but maybe a little out of reach).  Then, we look at a good, happy medium.  This is a goal that is achievable with good planned action steps, and can be a step toward the Mega Super Big Time Goal.  In this way, we can keep moving forward, maintaining our motivation, while continuing to accomplish things we never thought we could do!

Love vs. attachment (part 2)

While love is about the happiness of others and attachment is about the happiness of ourselves, how can we reconcile pursuing our own happiness without becoming attached to our experience?  By recognizing the ephemeral nature of our present existence, we can appreciate our lives moment to moment, understanding that everything comes and goes in impermanence.  We can find true joy in each breath, each sight, each sound, each touch.  When we let go of attachments, our love for others grows and blossoms, and quite naturally, we find the same unconditional love for ourselves.  What a fantastic thing!  The simple ecstasy of this precious human life gives us that happiness we have always longed for, now unburdoned by attachments. 

Love vs. attachment (part 1)

Attachment happens when we place happiness outside ourselves onto a person, a thing, or a label.  We get attached to our cars, our titles, our relationships, even to something as small as a favorite pen!  And when those things go away, or don't behave as we expect them to, it creates discontent, suffering and drama in our lives.  The opposite of attachment isn't detachment, it is love.  Love is wishing happiness (and knowing the root of that happiness) for all things.  We can think of love as being about the happiness of others, while attachment is about the happiness of ourselves.  When we love someone or something unconditionally without judgment, expectation or attachment, we truly can find joy in that being's happiness, however that may or may not include us.  This may sound like a hard concept to swallow, after all, we love our partners, children, pets and parents, right?  But if that relationship changes, do we really celebrate the other's joy in finding their true path?  If we find ourselves being swept into despair, insecurity or frustration about unmet expectations, we may want to explore our attachments and how they relate to our own happiness.

Suggested action:  Explore your attachments today.  How do they relate to your happiness and/or suffering?

Weaving passion into Life

Even the most mundane, everyday actions can take on more meaning for us if we actively weave our passion and values into what we do.  We can think of it as a ripple in a pond.  The center of the ripple is our actions that are tied to our core values.  Everything we do, everyone we meet, every action we take that affects others, projects that value outward from the center.  So whatever "mundane" action we are doing, if it is done from a space of honoring our core values, we know that the energy created from that action will continue to reverberate outward to more and more people.  Even after we can no longer see the results of our positive value-driven action in our immediate reality, the ripple continues, and the outward projection of our values lives on.  In this way, we know that what we do is affecting positive change in ourselves and others, even if we can't immediately see it. 

Suggested action:  Weave your values into everything you do today, and think about what the ripple effect of those actions will be on the Universe.  

Setting intention

The process of goal setting involves several steps.  Think of the steps as going from the discrete (fragmented) to the concrete (solid).  First, we visualize what we want to achieve.  Then, we set our intention.  Setting our intention helps solidify our commitment to the goal and can be a verbalized statement of what we want to accomplish.  For example, we may want to run a 5k, and we think of ourselves running in a race (visualization).  Then, we say, "I want to run the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure" (setting our intention).  Even more concrete than stating the intention outloud is to actually write it down.  Setting our intention in this way helps us to go from daydreaming about something to actually getting it on paper and planning out the steps to get there.  What may surprise us is the amount of fear that sometimes has to be overcome to go from the daydreaming phase to the intention phase.  But when we realize that every action is a choice (even non-action), we can be empowered by our decision to either set that intention or not.