Amaya Pryce: writer & life coach
  • Home
  • Offerings
    • Work with me
    • Books & articles
  • About
  • Blog
    • Professional Student of Life

Professional Student of Life

Adventures in personal growth

May: The Secret of Life

5/29/2016

0 Comments

 
The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time. ~ James Taylor

​
Lately I’ve been grappling with the question of goal-setting. I’m newly part of a Mastermind group, whose purpose is to assist and hold members accountable in setting and keeping goals. Mastermind groups are based on principles of success developed by Napoleon Hill, author of the classic Think and Grow Rich. The idea is that several minds working together are more powerful than one, and I do love knowing that my partners are visualizing me accomplishing my goals, as I am theirs.

But when I sit down to write goals, I keep bumping up against the same contrarian thought. So much of my reading and studying says: Be present! Stay in the moment! While goals are all about the future. The problem with goals is that we start thinking that our happiness, or success, or worth depends on meeting them. I struggle with that a lot lately, since I’m mostly not “working” and I don’t have a wildly successful career or accomplishments to point to. In this society we put so much emphasis on these outer trappings of success. If I’m not meeting some lofty goal, is my life a failure?

Well, no. That’s where the passage of time comes in. Even when you’re working toward worthy goals, the moment of realizing them is fleeting. The vast majority of time is spent in ordinary, daily activities, repeated over and over. Sleeping, cooking, eating, cleaning, shopping, dressing, bathing, doing errands. Even the most famous, accomplished person spends most of his time in very mundane ways, and this is wonderfully reassuring. We can all learn to be happy simply enjoying the passing of time. We don’t have to put it off until we’ve met our goals or reached some standard of worldly success.

Check in with yourself throughout the day and ask if you’re enjoying the passage of time. Is all of your attention on the next hours or days or weeks, or do you have time to inhabit the moment you’re actually in right now? It’s really the only time you have to be happy. Not that goals aren’t a good thing, when held lightly, but they’ll lead you astray if they become the focus of your life, and meeting them the criterion for your happiness. The mystery is that no moment of life is any more important or meaningful than another, and no one’s life is made more meaningful by their accomplishments. Life is meaningful in the absolute, not in the relative.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Join the family!

    ​By entering your email address you agree to receive my (quasi-) monthly blog, which occasionally includes offers from me. Per my privacy policy, you can unsubscribe at any time.
    * indicates required


    Archives

    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014

Privacy Policy
Website and content by Amaya Pryce, writer and life coach. All rights reserved.
​Contact: amaya.pryce@gmail.com
  • Home
  • Offerings
    • Work with me
    • Books & articles
  • About
  • Blog
    • Professional Student of Life