Have you ever made a resolution to do (or not do something)? Perhaps there was something that you wanted to accomplish or manifest in your life. Maybe it was something that you promised you would never do again? Then somehow, the not too distant future becomes present and you find that you have “fallen short of the glory.” Your intensions smashed to piece with hardly a fight.
In yoga we often create a daily practice or Sadhana that is often geared towards manifesting something or something letting go. Often times, even though our intentions are great and our heart is in the right place we, more quickly than not, fall off target and get super frustrated for not sticking to our resolve.
“The willingness to succeed is far outweighed by the willingness to prepare.” ~ Unknown
Let’s discuss 5 steps that are sure to help you accomplish everything that you set out to do. It won’t be easy but, with the right set up and a bit of work, you can manifest just about anything that you set your sights upon.
1. Make it Bite Sized
A mistake that many of us make when creating a habit or a routine, is that we set our expectations are too high. We come up with an hour long daily plan of action and then life gets busy and time gets tight and all too often we wind up skipping. If we keep things more concise or bite sized (maybe 15 minutes) we are more likely to get it done as it is more manageable and can be squeezed in to any schedule. A lot of little that happens is much better and more reasonable than a lot of lot that never happens.
2. Commit to a Time
Have the intention of completing your sadhana at a particular time of day, everyday. If your schedule won’t allow for this, just make sure you know exactly WHEN you are planning to do it. If you miss you will know right away and then you can reschedule but if you are ambiguous about when it is supposed to happen then it will be too easy to let the day get away from you without executing your task.
3. Create a Calendar
Keep track of your daily practice by writing it down. The power of putting something in writing is indispensable. There are entire books written about it. If you have your progress in writing, you will be more realistic with your stick-to-itiveness. Seeing your progress will either encourage you to keep going full speed ahead or let you know that maybe something has to be modified, which will help keep you disciplined. Perhaps it will simply be to recommit to or to slightly alter the game plan to make it more manageable.
4. Be Accountable
Find another person, preferably someone who is also working on something in a similar way. Call them a progress buddy. Share your calendar with them and check in with each other briefly on a daily basis. It can be just a text or email. If things are going well, make sure to encourage one another. If one of you miss, own up to it (TO EACH OTHER) and resolve to get back on track right away. When we have someone to answer to, a friend or colleague, we are more likely to stay on track. Monitoring our progress through someone else’s eyes helps us to stay accountable towards what we set out to do. If we just do the monitoring ourselves, we tend to let things slide quite a bit more easily and, before we know it, we feel too far gone to get back on track.
5. Have a morning and evening mantra
The first thing that you should do when you wake up is to reset your intention. Before you have your coffee or pee, make sure to do this and don’t let the potency of the morning slip away. It can be the exact same thing every day. In the morning make a verbal, out loud, promise to yourself (in second person) of what it is you are promising to do that day. When the night comes, if you accomplish the task, make sure to verbally thank yourself for accomplishing your task. If you miss, verbally forgive yourself for dropping the ball and amend to get it right the next day. Saying things out loud gives power to your prayers and helps to make them REAL. It might feel a little funny at first, but trust me that putting vibration to your prayers makes them so much more potent.
6. No matter what
Say this a few times during the day about your intention. On many days you might feel too busy, too tired, too distracted, too achy, too (fill in whatever excuses you can come up with). It’s mind over matter; if you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter. No matter what, stick to your plan. Here too, is a good time to say things out loud. “I understand why you don’t want to do this right now, but you promised that no matter what this was going to happen. So let’s get this done.” Empower yourself not to take the easy road. Take the road less traveled. Be willing to do the things that no one else is willing to do to get what you want.
I look forward to hearing about your victories. Please ask me any questions that you might have. You are capable of great things. You are ready for transformation. Manifest your own greatest potential.
