Secret #3

Goal-Free Living: How to Have the Life You Want NOW!

Secret #3 Remember That Opportunity Knocks Often, but Sometimes Softly (from Stephen Shapiro’s Goal-Free Living)

Interestingly enough, Stephen opens up this chapter with a further look into the idea of “what you focus on expands” from Secret #2. There is another part to this idea that he brings up: What you focus on expands to the exclusion of everything else. The meaning in our context is that when one is so focused on achieving ones goal(s), they often miss big, life-changing opportunities.

Good points:

  • Goal-free people constantly watch for opportunities that present themselves in unexpected ways.
  • They keep their minds free of clutter to allow subtle messages to appear.
  • Let go of your goals, let go of the rules, and see what opportunities pop up for you.
  • Don’t do what everyone else thinks you should do. Dig deep and find your own unique gifts and interests, create your own opportunities.
  • When you let go of a focus on your goals, your peripheral vision expands to see the opportunities that surround you.

I’ve really been thinking about the theme idea presented in Secret #1. Instead of making New Years Resolutions, it was suggested instead to give the year a theme: service, flow, flexibility, creativity, health, confidence, passion, peace, friendship, adventure, etc. I know the year is almost one-third over, but since I didn’t make any resolutions this year, I have been thinking about my theme.

My daughter Beth liked the idea, too and this is what she came up with:

The first thing I think of is “home”. I want the year to be filled with “home”. I see “home” as a place where I belong, being loved totally and completely for being me and being loved no matter what obstacles (people or otherwise) that come in the way, comfort and happiness with my current situation (work, etc.). Not that I can’t strive for more but that I am content what I have now. I haven’t had all of that at once for a very long time and I just started to feel it at the end of last year. I’d like to see a year full of that feeling.

I have been thinking about what I want for the rest of the year and the word that keeps popping up for me is RELAX. Relax and enjoy. Relax and let things happen. Relax and let go. Relax and release.

It feels almost guiltily self-serving to have that as a theme. And yet, I know it is what I need. I need to relax from striving. I need to relax from trying to make things happen. I need to relax and enjoy life. What I wonder is if I can just relax in my job selling furniture for the rest of the year, not look at craigslist, and just let it be for awhile.

I’ll be thinking more on that while I am relaxing on the beach in Waikiki. We leave tomorrow and I am so looking forward to it. This will be my last post until I return on April 3rd. Aloha!

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