About this time of year, I often become curious about the people who set New Year’s resolutions and how successful they were (so far) in keeping them. Many, I imagine, have been forgotten or tossed aside in frustration. We have such good intentions on starting anew, whether it is on the New Year, an upcoming birthday, or simply the start of a new week. “I’ll start on Monday,” is a quote I hear often.
So what happens? Success is usually only achieved if our original goal was realistic. If they are not, we have only set ourselves up for failure and failing adds unwanted pressure, stress and negative feelings about ourselves. When we think of setting and achieving goals, we usually judge ourselves exclusively on the end results, rather than understanding the positive steps we are taking along the way. Often, if we do not absolutely achieve everything we set out to do, the negative thoughts creep into our minds and our good intentions become intangible. Our conditioned response is to fall back and do what we have always done. That is a more comfortable place and it is always easier to settle for the same old thing than it is to charter new ground, especially if we have tried to accomplish the same goal more than once.
Dr. Chopra signs my book!
To be successful in setting our goals and reaching our dreams, maybe we should reevaluate our personal definition of success and see if some of our set backs were in some way related to our definition. In Deepak Chopra’s book, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success he describes the many aspects of success. He discusses how we judge ourselves based on acquisition of exterior or material things and suggests that they are only one small part of true success. He explains that a large part of success is in fact the journey toward the destination rather than the destination itself. If you solely concentrate on the destination, you will never be satisfied and therefore never successful.
In this book he also relates how success in life includes good health, energy and enthusiasm for life, fulfilling relationships, creative freedom, emotional and psychological stability, a sense of well being and peace of mind. These are valid considerations when thinking about where you want your new goals to lead you.
Each new day we awake to the ability to make our own choices. We can do and be whatever we want. And, the best part about this is that it doesn’t only happen on January 1st, or “Monday!” The choices we make today will determine our successes of tomorrow. In choosing to be a part of the Walking Connection whether by subscribing to our newsletter, reading my blog, liking us on Facebook or traveling the world with me, you have chosen to make walking a way of life.
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