The Building blocks
There is something about freezing cold weather in Minnesota (we are talking subzero temps for daytime HIGHs!) that make me want to hunker in and stay home. I want to bake cookies and make soup and take naps. My body is very aware that the “hustle” vibe is still sleeping deep within the earth, and I would love to be asleep right along with it.
It is challenging to feel the draw inward while the world is asking us to come out and accomplish, to do, do and more do. To mind our productivity instead of our inner peacefulness.
I have also been watching lots of videos on the Monk’s Peace walk across America. As I was watching a video recently a Monk made a statement that really stuck with me. He said, “The journey to inner peace takes presence, practice and consistency.”
His statement reminded me of so many things we aspire to accomplish and achieve in life, and how those three simple things are at the root of success, no matter what we are trying to accomplish.
Presence is about awareness and attention: are you really available to how you are and who you are in relation to the thing you are trying to achieve? Do you see both your strengths and your weaknesses? If all we see is our strength that we are not truly available to do what it takes to develop the thing, or accomplish the goal we desire, if you already have every inner thing you need, you would have achieved the outcome by now. Be attentive, to ALL of yourself, not just the parts you think others will like, or approve of, or that make your ego feel good. Be in the moment with all of yourself and you will see pathways forward that are otherwise hidden in plain sight.
Practice: all new skills require repetition. I can not count the number of things I have learned, but not repeated and when I went back to do them again, I couldn’t remember how. The people who help me with tech stuff will absolutely attest to this! Practice makes us uncomfortable. We see our shortcomings, we can feel overwhelmed by how far we need to go in order to ____ (fill in the blank), but practice sincerely does make perfect. We develop further and further into our dreams, goals, desires, and in practice give these things permission to expand beyond what we could originally conceive. Aka: you had no idea how good you could become.
Consistency asks us to keep going. There is an old saying, “it takes 28 days to make or break a habit”… sure. Theoretically that is true but please remember that you will need to show up beyond those 28 days if you really want to develop and maintain new habits. It’s about the consistency, whether it is moment to moment, day to day, or once a month. Staying with something, on the schedule you wish it to deliver on, is vital. I lift weights on Mondays. If I miss it on Monday the week slips away and I am without it all week, despite my best intentions. It does not come back around until the following week. So, I lift weights on Mondays… whether I want to or not, even when I don’t feel like it because I know I will not “do it another day.” I am consistent with my day of the week, even though it’s just one day a week right now. Consistency lets us build, not just muscle, but all things we desire. Think of it like this: if you do something every day for 28 days, you will start to develop a new habit. If you continue another 28 days, the habit will become more ingrained so it will feel “off” if you stop, and if you continue yet an additional 28 days it will be so routine it won’t even occur to you NOT to do the thing that you started 90 days ago having to purposely WORK at doing.
Whether we are talking about inner peace, or training for an athletic achievement, or having a higher level of health and well being, or climbing the ladder in business, these three aspects will lead you in the direction of your desires, and hey, it also works for developing our relationship within. Inner peace is not a small goal.
Cheers to whatever you are dreaming of!
Forever the journey, Anne