Success

While I was looking for some inspiration from anything but this weather, I noticed my friend Rasheed had a birthday on April 8th. I remembered that I had edited some of my previous writings into an article for a book he was compiling on the topic of success. Happy Birthday, Rasheed!

Too often, we see success as an outcome. When we have amassed a certain number of toys, dollars, possession, then we are successful. But true success is not our possessions. Our success comes from our choice of rhythm. As we learn our own rhythm or cadence, changing it in a heartbeat when we feel the urge, we learn to listen and flow. When a creek encounters resistance, like a rock, a downed tree or a beaver dam, it does not go through that block. The creek changes its rhythm and stays in flow by going around, over and underneath the resistance. What is my suggestion for true success? Go stand in a creek and …

…Surrender:
Surrender control rather than seize it. Let go and trust. A life full of preparation for situations that are yet only imagined is not much of a life at all.

…Step into the Unknown:
Step fully, freely and without hesitation into the unknown. To become comfortable with the unknown is to experience freedom. To make the leap without all the answers, to step into the darkness without expectation of what is to come, to embrace the unknown as a place in which we wallow, rest and soak up our inner essence is incredibly powerful. The unknown is where your imagination can take hold. And it's imagination that transcends time and place.

…Focus on Enough:
When enough truly is enough, what we desire moves in and out of our life naturally. There is enough for us; there is enough for everyone. We have the ability and freedom to nurture others and ourselves. When we appreciate the enough-ness in our lives, our enough-ness appreciates.

…Be a Child in Nature:
Nature is authentic. It is exactly what it seems to be. Be a grownup if you must. But be a grownup who knows the secrets children know. Go to the wilds.

…Be Without Goals:
If you're saying, “I’ll be dancing lightly when I achieve my goals,” you're missing out. Dance lightly now. Step into your delight, happiness, joy and let success find you. Life is a process, not a product. No stop along the way or altered path is a mistake. Turn your back on the product, the outcome, the goal, and pay attention to enjoying the process, the hunt. Then the elusive will present itself. It always does. It has no choice.

…Hone Your Skills at Being Lost:
The gift we receive from being lost is new, unexpected and random things like unforeseen circumstances, interesting people and odd surroundings. It stimulates us. If we can let go of being threatened simply because we are lost, we learn to not waste our energy panicking about the direction we should take.

…Take on Opportunities Rather than Musing about Possibilities:
Yes, we can remain on the creek bank and discuss and wonder at the possibilities. But the creek is going somewhere. There are trees, streams, rocks and trails on the other side waiting to be explored. There are fish to be caught! There are people along the creek who have stories to tell about their own opportunities taken. Find the opportunity in the possibility and take it.

…Relish Imperfection:
When we let go of perfection, allow ourselves to do things imperfectly, we come to see how perfect we are, just the way we are. It's a subtle difference but it's true. Our lives can be more perfect when we let go of perfection.

…Be Freely Vulnerable:
What excites me is the freedom inherent in every new beginning. What scares me is that I am vulnerable. Yet I can't separate the two. If I'm to be free, I'm to be vulnerable. I become energized by the possibility of freedom that a new beginning brings. When I seek to lessen the inherent vulnerability in a new beginning by trying to cover all the contingencies, I actually diminish my freedom and the new beginning becomes too small for me. Our lives and work must envelop vulnerable freedom or they come down to nothing more than a means of providing.

…Become Intuitive:
Trust your intuition and your dreams. See the unlikely. Think the unthinkable. Imagine the improbable. Life's biggest opportunities are often hidden to all but our intuition.

The Folly of Goals

The picture on this page is from a paddling trip my friend Deb and I took to Quetico a few years ago. The old car was sitting along the portage trail. We were tired and hungry and had some distance to go before we could set camp. Even so, we hopped in the car and spent a ton of time trying to get the camera hanging just right in a tree so we could set the timer and get the pic. With a little creative play and a lot of laughing, that time out made the rest of the day a breeze. Beep beep!


The dictionary defines a goal as ‘the result or achievement toward which effort is directed.” It's that word “effort” that bothers me. Here's the interesting thing I've discovered about goals. The more effort I put towards a goal, the less perfect my present becomes. And the less perfect my present is, the more goals I set. Goals can be seductive and cause me to strive.

Let's say you're on a well-worn forest path. The goal is the large oak tree at the end of the path. Many have been there before you so you believe if you just follow the path, with effort, you'll reach the goal too. It's a long trek and not everyone has survived the journey so you become extremely focused on the goal and you plan methodically, day-by-day, hour-by-hour, step-by-step, your journey. In order to take this exhausting journey, you believe that nothing, but nothing, can distract you from your goal. Do you make it? Maybe, maybe not. But in your determination and your striving, you purposefully put on blinders to keep you from distractions. You gear yourself each day with a work-hard attitude in order to attain your goal.

But distractions are the very thing that makes the present so rich. Perhaps one of the distractions is another hiker who has already reached the goal tree. He would tell you, if you had taken the time to listen, that this goal is not worth the effort. It is old and fading and it is no longer able to support you. But in your desire to reach the goal, your head is down, focused on each step you take on the path, you ignore or totally miss the hiker. Perhaps the distraction is another path, less worn but obviously starting to be used. But in your nose-to-the-ground mode, you pass right by, never knowing that this path leads to two oak trees, just as beautiful as your original oak goal and a much shorter trip.

I'm not suggesting you let go of all wants and desires. In fact, have a ton of wants and desires. Desire any little old thing that comes to mind and intend for it to happen. But then let go of your attachment to it. That's where goals foul us up. When we take that desire and turn it into a goal, we become attached to the outcome. That very attachment puts us in striving mode and the striving robs us of our enjoyment of the present. Desires and intentions are a more relaxing knowing or sureness that unhooks us from the striving. And with this, action comes from inspiration rather than a set of defined steps you have determined you must take to reach the goal.

If you're willing to approach all you want with desire and intention, no stop along the way or altered path is a mistake. What freedom!

“When the future becomes far more important than the present, the destination holds more importance than the journey.” ~Thomas Leonard

"To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top." ~Robert Pirsig

“We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.” ~Henry David Thoreau

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then Success is sure. ~Mark Twain