Goal Setting

Permit me to think out loud here because today I feel confused. EEKS – aren’t I the one who always talks about clarity? Well, I’m re-reading a book that I read many years ago called, Your Money or Your Life and it is helping me to highlight a major belief I have that ‘enough is enough’. For years now, I’ve been following the success gurus who talk about being a millionaire. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against money – far from it – but, I wonder if everyone is really called to have the same thing. I’m finding so many midlife women that I coach are simplifying their lives rather than attempting to accumulate more. I think it goes along with Carl Jung’s ideas about the growth of interiority during our midlife transitions.
I’m an advocate of using Allowing rather than Making things happen (Yes, I love the works of Abraham and Esther-Hicks!) – as well as the message in Wayne Dyer’s book on Inspiration. There truly is a difference between inspiration (allowing) and Motivation (making) things happen. Somewhere in between is a balance.

I’m also doing the program by Mark Joyner called Simpleology and he is Very clear on our need to set specific goals. I GET what he is saying and it makes sense. I clearly know that the Law of Attraction is not about visualizing without action and I know that what we focus on increases.

So, I continue to ponder – how much is enough? and when are goals important and when is it important to ALLOW the flow?

I’d love to hear your comments.

This morning I had breakfast with a good friend who was lamenting that life didn’t turn out the way she had planned. Mine hasn’t either. And, I have been wondering lately how few people actually can say in midlife that their life took exactly the direction they expected.

How we handle this difference is hugely responsible for how we feel about our lives and also responsible for the future we are creating. I’ve learned to focus on the ‘essence’ of what I want in life, rather than the ‘it must be THIS way’ in almost every aspect of my life and it makes a major difference in how I am living. I like my life. Of  course, there is more that is possible. But, there will always be room for more. That’s the nature of growth – and it’s actually the nature of God itself – every expanding.

I’ve come to realize that unlike what I thought as a child, there is no “plan” that I have to fit into; there are no should’s in life and nothing that I am supposed to do. Instead, on a moment to moment basis, I can ask – does this feel good? AND -what am I grateful for? It’s a much better focus. Try it…

Lately, I’ve been pondering the question how much of life is about being and how much about doing? Actually, I understand the Law of Attraction and know that Everything is consciousness. I also understand about inspired action. It’s no good to just go about doing. We are not meant to be human doings but human beings. I know this. And yet, some things don’t seem to be getting done that I want done – and I don’t seem to be inspired to do them,.

Yesterday, I heard Dr. Oz on Oprah saying – most people wait to be motivated to do something and the opposite is true, you have to do something to get motivated. This is an interesting statement. Don’t you think? What DO you think? I’d love to hear.

One of the main principles I teach is that what you focus on increases…and if you focus on what you are grateful for, you begin to see more. If you find yourself focusing on what there isn’t enough of – it – first of all feels awful – and secondly – produces MORE of the same… We don’t have enough money; there isn’t enough time; I don’t have enough self-esteem – I have discovered that one of the thing that stops me most is my belief in NOT ENOUGHNESS

Usually toward the end of the year, for example, I ask – what have I accomplished? Mostly – what HAVEN”T I done that I wanted to do or thought I SHOULD HAVE done? Do you see yourself here?

Sometimes we look forward and we make a list that says – This year I’m going to…. Which is usually another list of the things we are berating ourselves for – that we don’t have enough of or do enough of…

Lately, instead I am choosing to focus on ABUNDANCE – which basically is an attitude of Gratitude that says THERE IS ALWAYS ENOUGH…

Abundance is our divine birthright. It is a quality of God, and therefore, by analogy, one of the qualities we all inherit as ‘children of God.

This idea of focusing on qualities rather than on resolutions is very powerful… and something you’ll be hearing a lot more from me on. (It’s the topic of my new book and CD’s – coming soon!)

Qualities of God are not TO DO lists – They are WHO GOD IS – they are therefore more about BEING than they’ll ever be about DOING. And, we are made in the image and likeness of God – and like most of us have finally probably realized with our own parents or children – the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree…and in this case, we inherit ALL of the Qualities of God – because we are individualized expressions of God… Does this make sense? This is an essential point in New Thought – WE ARE ALREADY
all these things – but we bury them over with layers of FEAR –

Whatever you think you could use more of – start giving more of it…. There’s a great song I want to play at our offering — SEND OUT MORE….

Physicists and people like Deepak Chopra have taught us that by focusing on a particle we actually bring that particle into existence. There is no need for effort – or strain – isn’t that good news. We simply need to put our
attention on what we want instead of what we don’t want. Whatever we focus on increases in our lives. Whatever we send out – that’s what we start to get…

If we focus on lack, for example, we tend to create more of it in our lives. Likewise, if we focus on abundance, we’ll create more of that as well.

Did you ever notice that those who talk about being ill a lot are usually ill? The Master teacher, Jesus said, as you believe, so shall it be done to you. We show outwardly what we truly believe in by the words we speak. We may say we believe in health, for example, but if our conversation is always on our illnesses, or our fear of illnesses, that’s what we bring about in our life.

If you focus always on what went wrong in the past, you are doomed to repeat the past. The course in Miracles says, That which we resist persists. The reason that it persists is that that is what we are giving our attention to.

So, I am inviting you to choose a quality of God and GIVE YOUR ATTENTION To it… EVERYDAY.