Goal Creation & The Path of Least Resistance
What is the path of least resistance in creating long lasting habits?
Can reflection and giving pause in life, address underlying beliefs that lead to healthy habits?
First off let’s define prototyping, a word that will come up often in this piece.
Prototyping - Re-diverting often within an actionable project/goal - in order for this to happen, allowance in failure is paramount. I don’t tend to use the term failure’ often because most people have a negative attachment to the term but for the sake of understanding I will use it here.
I recently had a coaching session where I was asked to write out some goals I had for myself. As I wrote - I felt myself spiraling into this abyss of panic and anxiety. How could this be happening I thought. This is such a simple exercise in the ILS group I facilitate, I journal all the time with more in depth issues!
My mind was swirling with ideas and to-dos that I felt needed to get done in order for those ideas to transpire! I was overwhelmed… but why? ZI took some deep breaths. Set my ideas aside and decided to de-stress by making myself a pancake. I didn’t come back around to addressing the issue until my next coaching session, where my coach asked me why I thought that was happening And to my chagrin I actually had to think about it - alls I could come up with at first was. “It’s hard to dial it down.” How do I focus on one thing when I have so many ideas and she said to me “yes, It is hard. That’s why you’ve decided to get a coach”, and for some reason this relaxed my anxiety about the issue somewhat.
It’s almost as if this new acknowledgment of struggle helped me understand that maybe I had never allowed myself to acknowledge this struggle before. I had never truly said it out loud or addressed it. What a beautiful thing awareness and labelling feelings can be! We then made a manageable plan for one goal! Just one! It’s not that I won’t accomplish other goals that are already consciously engrained in my routine, but this was a goal I had been struggling with and creating a timeline that allowed for breaks made it seem so doable.
Throughout my coaching session I also complained about some reason I couldn’t get it done under my breath. My coach immediately picked up on it and called me out. “What’s the fear behind your diversion?” she asked. I told her that I wanted to know for certain it will work out. “what’s the worst thing that could happen if it doesn’t?”, Well shite! nothing I retorted. “Absolutely nothing”. I knew I would enjoy doing it and that no matter what I would never regret this endeavor, because of previous de programming and being in tune with what my authentic self. Even if it didn’t get the attention needed for an end goal I had in mind. This is how I knew that what I was doing was within my line of divine vision. I would be acting on my joy! And practicing what I preached.
One subject I go over in my ILS group is the idea of getting in the gap. This is a term I had heard in my twenties about allowing yourself the space to process and step away from something. This is often where the magic happens! Our subconscious is always in awareness and working for us.
I believe I had in the past with my goals felt a pressure to achieve it now! all of it. Don’t put it off’ my subconscious (learned program) was screaming. If you do, you won’t finish it. And this couldn’t be further from the truth now that I look back at all the goals I had achieved. Every single one of them was started and stopped and put off slowly developing in its own time. I had given myself permission with other goals and subconsciously and graciously allowed for pause between them without pushing for a determinate ending or even outcome and they had transpired! But there was a deeper learned subconscious belief that had stunted this specific goal creation coming about in this way as well and maybe was the whole reason it never transpired at all, because it wasn’t following a path of least resistance - A path where space and a gracious testing of the waters was given. I like to call that prototyping.
Awareness allows us to gather information and re-direct subconscious behavior!
Can you make a promise to yourself? Can you give yourself permission to get in the gap within a goal and to let it transpire in a way that is fluid and slow if needed? Whether it’s a new goal or one on repeat - are you allowing the needed space for the goal to transpire in a holistiic and natural way? Does it feel rushed? Is it in alignment with your deeper divine self?
How to know…. Ask yourself - what’s the worst that could happen if it doesn’t end up the way you want it to? This is where the goal can be valued at exactly what it is. Does the doing’ of the goal create joy in your innermost being? If it does, you know it’s yours to keep and you can let it transpire in the path of least resistance, trusting that it will happen. It all begins with an idea.
