Effort

Last week On my other blog we tackled the importance of rest. Bottom line? Hard work is revered and rest is shunned. If a person chooses to take the easy route, they are seen as lazy.

So just to stir things up….here’s our thought for the day…

No matter what you are getting ready to do, if you realize you are not in alignment, better not do it. Anything less than alignment equals effort. Alignment equals inspired action.

Some Background:

My parents were a bit older than the “average” parent. Probably by a decade. I think this gave them the maturity to deal with things differently. Especially tantrums. Rarely did they join us in our rants about the injustices of life. And rarely would they let us engage in important activities until we could see something besides red.

One of their hard and fast rules was that we never got behind the wheel of the car upset. I think that makes the perfect visual for today’s message.

We drive our own lives. As we begin to own the art of deliberate creation, we drive consciously rather than on autopilot. Driving consciously entails several factors the first of which is alignment.

An Example:

I have a habit of ‘putting the cart before the horse’ as my grandma would say. Meaning that I enter my day with the attitude of …. once I get this done, I will feel better. Sometimes I am exhausted by the time I swipe off the first line off my “To Do” list.

What our message states is to start with the “feeling better” part and then tackle the activities.

Why?

Effort. The first scenario (I’ll feel better when) predisposes me to “efforting” my way through my first task. I might have bad timing, missing the people with whom I am trying to connect. I might not be thinking clearly and say the wrong thing at the wrong time or in the wrong way. I might make bad choices that end up further away from a satisfying result.

A Story:

I have been working on Time Management. I have a tendency to operate in chaos, moving from task to task to task in a random way. In the last few months I have completely changed my schedule. (Well, I now actually have more of a schedule.)

I still find it hard to commit the time to sit down and create said schedule. It feels like wasted time even though I see how much more I get done when I don’t have to pause at the end of a task and decide what the next task will be.

The same goes for alignment.

Most of the meditation gurus profess beginning each segment of your day with meditation. Meditation gets us into alignment. Alignment is like making a schedule because it streamlines our day, moving us from effort action to inspired action.

Effort action feels like slogging through the swamp, swatting mosquitoes and sweating bullets. Inspired action is like skipping through a flower-filled meadow in the sunshine.

Simply? You get lots further by skipping.

Meditation is just one way to achieve alignment. There is a full post on alignment here.

But here are a few steps.

1. Know Your Gut – What sensations do you experience when you achieve alignment? What does inspiration feel like? What does exhilaration feel like? What does the opposite feel like? Know your spectrum of energy.
2. Take Stock – where are you on your personal spectrum right now? Where is that relative to where you operate best. As with most things, we have an optimal operating range. We don’t have to reach our peak before we start any task. But it helps to be at the highest energy level we can at that moment. This only takes a few seconds and it’s well worth the time.
3. Adjust – How can you get from point A to point B? Can you look at a few funny memes? Do a short meditation? Engage in a bit of exercise? As we get more adept, we maintain our energy levels better to where we are never far from that optimum. Then it takes just a small tweak to achieve alignment.
4. Begin – Whether you are starting your day or starting a new project or mid-way through something when you realize you are slogging instead of skipping… find that alignment and begin anew!

Effort. Can you give it up? Can you swap a bit of the time you might spend working hard and substitute some time getting into alignment?

Consider the possibilities….