Educanopy Blog

Reaching Out for Meaning in 2010

“Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning
if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.”
— Aristotle

Are you one of the millions of hopefuls making a little list right now?  Want to know more about how to get where you want to go?

Some New Year’s resolutions are good intentions, some are pipe dreams, and some are actually achievable goals or real plans for new habits.

Yet almost all of them are sincere (except for those made to placate someone else’s desire for us to change). And almost all of them are forgotten in a few weeks or months.

What are the secrets of making and keeping good plans for new beginnings?

Well, one secret is in the mysteries of Reaching Out.

There are many ways to reach out to a new intention.  Here are some of the most common methods:

• Reaching Out with our minds.
  The beginning of all change starts with an idea.
  Think of what you want and reach out for it with your mind.

Reaching Out with our hearts.
The beginning of motivation is in the heart.
Connect your desire with your ideas, and reach out with your heart.

• Reaching Out with our hands.
  The visible beginning comes from daily action.
  Reach out with your actions and connect motivation with practice.

Reaching out with your heart and mind is powerful, and takes courage.  You risk wanting something without knowing the outcome.  This ‘inner game’ part of reaching out is scary for many people.  If we admit to ourselves how much we want something to change, it brings the tension of unknowing and responsibility.

And if we take no action, that can cause inner conflict and all kinds of negative emotions, like guilt and shame, even feelings of low self-worth and failure.

Enter: Daily Action. (Daily Action wears a Mighty Mouse cape, and is singing, “Here I come to save the day…”).

If you want to keep your resolves, this is the secret within the secret:

Repeat steps one and two, reaching out with mind and heart, again and again, to shore up Daily Action.

This means as you start to practice the new habit, revisit your ideas and motivation daily. Think of more new ideas, about how to keep the motivation high, and about exactly what will help you want to succeed. Then act upon your ideas.  Observe your progress without judging.

That’s it. That is the secret of keeping the new habits long enough to get them established.  Success comes best when reaching out in all three ways:  with ideas, desire, and action.  Follow-through (Daily Action) has a much better chance when our thoughts, feelings, and behavior are on the same page, as they say.

In your head or written, New Year’s resolutions do mean something.  They mean you want something you don’t yet have.  Written ones have a higher success rate.

Recap — Reach out to your goals with your ideas, check to see if you can find some heart-power (motivation) to back up those ideas, and do your Daily Action.

Then when the Daily Action gets a little slippery, reach out for more ideas and find more motivators to help keep you on track.

Recap’s Recap — Repeat the cycle of Reaching Out as many times as you want, or as many times as you breathe, or…

You get the idea, now find your desire and act!