We all spend some time considering what we want and how to get there. We plan, meditate, and take action. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we wobble, but hopefully we get back on the good foot and keep on doing our thing.

I came across this post I wrote a few years back on HuffPo. Looking through my mindset back just a couple years ago, I’ve softened quite a bit as a person and as a business person, and it’s changed how I approach my life dramatically. I no longer consider working hard and creating new doors where there aren’t any a measure of success or even the best approach. What I have gained with the last few years of experience isn’t to push harder, it’s to find the ease, work efficiently, and appreciate those around me. It’s possible to build a big business with pushing and forcing and working so hard you can’t see straight, but I have an insight, from my own experiences and asking a lot of people who I admire, that being efficient and focusing in, and finding the ease, is a sustainable, more spherical, effective, and enjoyable approach.

There are a lot of trends and secrets claiming if you do these 5 things you’re sure for success, or if you follow a certain rule book, you’ll achieve all your dreams. Just like yoga, when you move like yourself, and feel into the full range of yourself, you’ll get intuitive, inspired, calm, capable, oh, and an incredible strong and radiant body too. When you follow someone else’s rules of how to get into a pose, you’ll at best copy their pose, but also create a whole lot of tension in your body and mind and achieve no other goal than possibly nailing a pose. Moving like you and feeling into you is the practice that delivers all the answers for your life. Trust in that and you’ll get what you want.

10 Steps to Getting What You Want

1. Be YOU. There is only one YOU on this planet. Take advantage of that. You are inspiring, creative, intelligent and capable. Spending any energy trying to be like someone else is foolish. Cultivate who you are by working on yourself. Spend time meditating, practicing ease, and becoming the best version of yourself. It’s a process. Allow yourself to room to breathe, grow and change. Never stop growing.

2. Do What You Love. When doing something you love, no matter what you’d be getting paid, or think the outcome might be, not only will you enjoy yourself more, but you have a better chance of actually creating a sustainable life. Happiness is contagious. It’s ok to have a job that pays the bills and do what you love as a hobby. Putting pressure on your passion to put a roof over your head can snuff the flame out of your inner fire. Spend your time doing what interests you and your interests may just turn into a business. But don’t worry if the business is small or big. Have fun doing what you love. 

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” Milton Berle If you knock and the door doesn’t open and it’s locked, instead of breaking it down try another door, or go for a walk and see what else you find. 

3. Trust your instincts. “I feel there are two people inside of me — me and my intuition. If I go against her, she’ll screw me every time, and if I follow her, we get along quite nicely.” Kim Basinger Cultivate your intention. Write it down. What is your aim with what you are doing. Chose your action based if it fits into your intention. Let your intuition be your guide. Don’t worry about gain, follow your intuition.

4. Work hard. No one is going to do the work for you. Find the ease. Work efficiently. Use what you need. Rest what you don’t.  “Hard work has made it easy. That is my secret. That is why I win. If it were easy everyone would be a champion.” Nadia Comaneci

5. Be nice to people. “Your Karma is a continuum, part of the process that is happening to you now, not something far away in future life.” – OSHO This is my favorite one and important to add be nice to everyone, whether you think they can do something for you or not. You’ll feel more connected to yourself and your passion when you start to extend your generosity toward people who can’t offer you anything in return other than a smile.

6. Don’t listen to your critics. “If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business.” Abraham Lincoln No need to get wrapped up in what others think of you. Lots of praise and lots of criticism can be the same trap of seeking external approval. Focus on your intention and do the work. 

7. Be Patient. Things might not (and usually don’t) happen in the timing that you want. Patience can be your biggest asset. Cultivate it. “If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent.” Isaac Newton Allow space for things to turn out different than your plan. Different might be a lot better, so broaden your perspective.

8. Take Care of Yourself. Your health is a responsibility that is completely in your control. “Every human being is the author of his own health or disease.” Buddha Make time for relaxation, practice, and stimulation. Take baths. Read good books. Take long walks. These activities are crucial to your health and your success. 

9. Stop Complaining. If you don’t like how something is, change it. We can’t change everything, but we can do quite a bit about our circumstances when we drop the complaints. “Instead of complaining that the rosebush is full of thorns, be happy that the thorn bush has roses.” Proverb You have to like where you are in order to get where you are headed. Get comfortable in who you are and work from there.

10. Have Fun. If you’re not having fun then what’s the point? “If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.” Katharine Hepburn Who made the rules! Watch your intention. It could very easily end up on a t shirt for your next clothing line 🙂  What do you want, what are your intentions, and what is your plan to get to where you are headed? I’d love to know! xo Tara

About Strala Yoga Training

Strala combines the movement and healing wisdom of tai chi with the form vocabularies of yoga, tai chi, qigong, and Traditional Chinese and Japanese Medicine, to help people release stress, move easily through challenge, and live radiantly inspiring lives.

It begins with a mindset, that says our best way to get where we’re going is to feel good along the way. It also works miracles for whole health, helping us to find ease in our bodies and minds, and create the right conditions both for healing and optimal performance.

In our Strala Yoga Training Courses, you learn to shape your destiny on every level that counts, from your psychology, chemistry and neurology, to your chromosomes and even gene expression. The unique set of skills you develop – for connecting with yourself and others, unblocking your energy, healing what needs healing and accomplishing challenge with ease – uncovers your ability to create the life you want, and be an inspiring leader to the people around you.

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