There are two sides to an argument about striving for goals. One says, you are perfect just how you are and there is no need to change. Accept yourself as you are. Love your life how it is. The other side of this is, if you just sit and accept things how they are, how can they ever improve, if they are unpleasant? How can you get anywhere if you sit around being satisfied with what is?
I am a fan of balance. I do think that some of us are meant to just be, with no striving. Just floating along being. Connecting with life as it comes one thing at a time with no thought or striving for change or difference from the now. This is one type of life experience that I believe wholeheartedly is the design for some lives. I also think that some of us are meant to strive for something. That our lives were designed by us, for us, to learn and grow and become something, and that is the experience we are here to have. I don’t necessarily think it is one or the other either. I think you can be here to experience both types of lives. One full of striving, and one fully of being.
The trick is to know when to strive and when to be. I think it comes down to acceptance of life as it is. That doesn’t mean you don’t continue to move forward toward a goal. I think it is more about the judgments you place on your current situation or condition. It is about the pain and suffering your judgments cause you, which keep you stuck. If my life is going horribly “wrong”. I am sick, having financial troubles, work is hard, etc., I wouldn’t need to just accept that this is supposed to be this way and not do anything. I might do that, if I am here to just trust the universe and be. I might also be learning to accept how things are and also move toward something else. I do not have to judge my situation as hard, bad, wrong etc. I can see it as it is, and remind myself it is here for me to learn and grow, and then determine the direction to grow, and move. I think there are times in all of our lives for sitting still and being, accepting what is and not trying to do anything about it. I also think there are times for all of us where we can accept what is, learn from it, and move out of it with intention and a goal.
As we talk about goals, we can strive for something while accepting where we are now. When we stop fighting what reality is, we can then see it more clearly, and then we can see more clearly how to change it. A detached awareness of what is, acceptance and peace that in this moment, this is what is supposed to be happening, does not mean we cannot or are not supposed to do anything to try to change it. It just means we can drop the pain and suffering over what is, which actually gives us more energy to make changes.
My messages this week have been both of these. Sit and wait, and go. I have heard it is time to make choices, time to reflect, time to appreciate, and time to strive. My message in meditation this morning was you are perfectly where and who you are supposed to be. Keep moving. Striving for perfection is not useful. Striving to be always learning and growing, that makes more sense. I repeat to my students often, learn something different, do or be something different. Until you learn it, you cannot be it.
As you work on your goals, try to remember this: You are perfect right now, in this moment, just as you are. You are not supposed to be different. You can be different though, if you want to be, and choose to be. To achieve that, love the now, be present in the now, and keep moving toward whatever it is that you see as the future you desire. Just don’t miss the patterns and details in this moment. You need them to keep moving to the next moment. If you are always looking into the next moment, you will miss this one, which is exactly where everything you need resides. The same thing happens if you are always looking back to the last moment, you miss what you are supposed to be seeing in this one. Stay present, keep moving, learn, grow, and love yourself as you are in every perfect moment that is exactly how it is always supposed to be. Strive for your goal. It is what you are supposed to be doing because you chose it. Cut yourself a break too, as you practice, learn, grow, and change as you are supposed to do. Perfection already exists. It is not something you are striving for.
Meditation Mantra: I am, now and always, perfectly, exactly who I am supposed to be in each moment. I learn and grow and change as I am supposed to do at exactly the right moments. Everything has its own time.
Namaste