Goals, Choice, and Sacrifice
Have you ever heard that you can have anything you want?
Any dream or desire you have can and will manifest with enough practice?
I’ve heard this too. And I believe it to be true. That said, I think there are more pieces to this puzzle… some of them don’t get mentioned and so we can have an incomplete understanding. It’s a classic “you don’t know what you don’t know” situation.
So many people get agitated and disappointed when they don’t reach their goals. I think the missing pieces give us an important contemplation – choice and sacrifice. I think there is confusion around “enough practice” and “the necessary practices”.
Writing a book has been a dream of mine since I was a child. I was doing a personality test a few years ago and could not figure out if I was an introvert or extrovert. When I asked my dad what he thought, his reply was “when you were a kid, you were happiest on your own with your books”. Yep. Introvert and book lover. Since I was 4 years old.
On January 1st, 2018 I decided that this was the year that I would write a book (my goal). I wrote the manuscripts for two books! Turns out it takes a lot to get a book manuscript written, and at least the same amount of effort to get the manuscript into a publishable product.
One of my dreams is to write a book and to be a published author. Can I have my dream? Sure. However, it means making choices in the direction of my dreams. And this means sacrifice. Yes, I can have what I want, however my hands, my being and my life can only hold so much at any given time. If I hold firmly to the dream of writing and publishing a book, then that means I’m going to have to make space for this by letting go of other things.
In the process of working on the book, I’ve chosen to make room for my dream by letting other things go. I’ve had to say no to lunches and social engagements, no to other work and opportunities, no to more time off. I’ve had to open up to feedback of all sorts and let go of my ego’s desire to be right and perfect – this is a great example of releasing my old self and ways for the new goal. I have to choose to work on the book – writing, reviewing, editing – and saying yes to this (choice) means saying no to something else (sacrifice).
I don’t see any of this process as good or bad. It simply is. Yoga teaches that what you can do is choose consciously.
I share this hoping to create a more complete picture. You can have your dreams, however getting to the goal requires you to choose the goal, and it will ask you to sacrifice something. I hope this moves us into “knowing what we don’t know”, and helps you to achieve your dreams and desires.
Let me know how you’re doing… What’s the dream, and where are you at in your process? How are you choosing your goal? What are you sacrificing in the process of achieving your goals?