What if I told you that you could get more done by doing less? Would you believe me?
Would you nod your head like you did believe me, even agree to try some of the crazy things I asked you to try, yet still fall back into your old busy, over-doing patterns? You know, the ones that keep you feeling overworked and overwhelmed, without a clue about how to attain the peace of mind the women on the front of your yoga magazine seem to effortlessly emanate?
I get it. I am a recovering achievement junkie and doing addict myself—programmed to push and push until I get to my goal. One of the reasons it makes it so hard to change that programming is that I have this inner mean girl inside my head, who I call Move-the-Bar Brenda. She is always moving the goal right before I get there. No matter if I reach the goal I originally set out for, or that I did more than a team of ten horses on their best day could accomplish, in her eyes (and therefore in mine), I fall short. So there is always more to do. I have to keep pushing.
In 2011, with the help of my inner wisdom, and some inside tips from a few telegrams from heaven I received (and have included here for you), Move-the-Bar Brenda is going on vacation—far, far away. And she would like to invite your overdoing, overachieving, over-responsible inner mean girl to go with her!
All you have to do is read these telegrams for heaven, decide how they apply to your life and then take an inside action. Change your internal filter to see that maybe, just maybe, you can have a bigger impact (and be happier) if you do less in 2011.
In 2011:
- Select out a few seeds to work with—projects, focuses, desires—and really focus on protecting and nurturing those precious few. 2010 was all about throwing lots of seeds out there and seeing what grows. 2011 is about letting many of those seeds go, and only protecting a few. The best analogy I heard was from Pamela Eakins, PhD, who said that you should imagine that last year, you threw down lots of seeds and this garden started to grow. Now this year, the goats have arrived, and they are going to start to eat everything up. If you could only save a few seeds what would those be? Build a fence around those, protect and grow those.
- Narrowing your focus and letting go is okay—trust it. So, as you choose your specific seeds, you are going to have to let the goats eat the remaining seeds. Which means you will have to let go of ideas, project, goals, and more. This of course freaks us overachievers out. Just know that this act will bring up some fear, and notice when the fear shows up. Calm your inner mean girl down by closing your eyes and breathing. See how letting go frees you up to have more impact in what you do. This is about activating your feminine super power of trust.
