Choosing the Intent to Focus on for the Next 365 Days
Posted on : 01-01-2007 | By : Lynn | In : Communication, Heart Talks, Uncategorized
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(recently published at www.lifebeforebusiness.com)
If there is a way for me to take a benign positive movie such as “The Secret” and turn it into a rocket ship fueled by neurosis to ponder and argue within my head about every positive point made in the movie—then I have done it. I conducted this “mind dance” for several months before I realized that I had caught myself up inside of a hopeless spiral with no end in sight.
Something inside of me broke loose with this awareness and prescribed for me to step gently back away from the movie for a bit so that I could gain perspective. Gone were the 45 minute jogs with me thanking the Universe for things that I wanted to bring into my life. I stopped questioning what I was doing wrong when the large amount of money that I was thankful for every day did not appear. After many days of allowing myself time to just chill, I revisited “The Secret” once again and asked myself what was one important point that I could implement into the New Year and it was this:
Instead of focusing on what I DON’T want; to focus on what I DO want
I think of this as a form of spiritual Tai Chi on gratitude for what I do have in my life.
Focusing on what I want seems so simple upon reading or hearing it for the first time, yet I’ve recognized that for all my boundless joy that really deep inside of me lives a very dark and sarcastic being. I am not going to throw the baby out with the bath water and completely disown this part of me, after all it has supplied me with the energy for numerous articles, but I do see how it is second nature for me to know instantly what I don’t want and much harder for me to think about what I do want in my life. This even in a world of countless choices from the specific way that I want my coffee brewed and served to a deli sandwich.
My very rudimentary understanding of neuro-linguistic programming tells me that if I continue to catch my negative dislikes and replace them with my spoken likes, then the worst I will get is to have a more positive perspective on life. I’m dummying down my wants to the very basics by trying to catch my “don’t want” words before they come out of my mouth and reframe them into what I do want when they are spoken. Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to attract those things that I really want into my life.
For this New Year take a tip from me and instead of coming up with a huge list of goals that cause you to feel sick to your stomach six months into the year when you’ve barely accomplished two, find one intent that you are willing to focus on daily for the next 365 days. Who knows, you just may surprise yourself with the results.
Thank you for that! So honest, effective and wonderful! I realized just this morning that, having done exactly what you proposed about 10 months ago, I am now on my way to starting a business that I am passionate about. My mantra then was: “I have a business that pulls in $250 million in revenue annually.” Trust me, I was nowhere close to that, and had no idea for a business. The idea came to me in a flash about 2 months ago, and after struggling with myself for a while (is there really any other battle? HAHAHA) I think I’m ready to plunge in. Who knows whether it will succeed? The thrill is in trying. So even if you can’t exactly name what you want in a tremendous amount of detail, in my experience, a positive statement of any kind seems to get things moving. Good luck.