by Linda-Ann Stewart

When I was six, my family went on vacation, traveling 1500 miles. My mom highlighted the route on a map for me and listed approximate times when we would reach each stopping point along the way. During the day, she kept me informed as to our progress, pointing out where were on the map. Because it was visual, right there in front of me, I didn’t keep pestering her with, “When will we get there?” As a result of this early education, reading a map is second nature to me. This ability has also been very useful in other areas. Life is a journey that needs to have some direction and goals to reach.

Some people prefer to drift through life without any conscious aim. They want to be Divinely guided, which is beneficial to a point. What they don’t realize is that Universal guidance has to filter through their subconscious mind, with its filter of limitations, experiences, and preconceptions. As a result, they generally wander aimlessly, sometimes in a circle, rarely traveling far from their starting point.

Being open to Divine guidance can direct you along different byways and deliver information, contacts, and all sorts of things that enrich your life and help you to your goal. Sometimes, just for fun, you could get distracted from your destination, detouring to something enjoyable or interesting. This could be beneficial as long as you don’t travel too far off track.

When you want to travel from point A to point B, or coast-to-coast, it’s easiest to accomplish that by deciding the route you want to take. First, figure out where you are, at the present time. For instance, imagine you want to reduce weight. Your starting point would be your current weight. Or suppose you want more income. In that case, your existing income is where you’d begin. Sometimes, it takes some internal investigation to find out where you truly are starting from, because you might have hidden it from yourself.

Once you’ve recognized where you are, you can begin to assess all the different routes you can take. You can go directly from one point to another, take the scenic route, or detour to visit friends or family. It doesn’t matter how you plan your route, as long as you begin to plan. For weight loss, it might be learning new eating behaviors and getting exercise. Increased income might mean getting more training and education or looking for another job.

Without a plan, and the action accompanying it, you’re stalled and may drift whichever way the wind, or the average of the ideas in your subconscious, blows. You may want to reduce weight, improve your health, eat better, increase your income, but if you don’t move decisively in a direction, the Universe can’t guide you because your subconscious doesn’t believe you truly want to arrive at the destination.

With the general route decided upon, you can decide how far you want to go each day, and where you want to stop each night. During your trip, there might be unexpected detours, or delays due to weather, but overall, you keep going in the direction of your destination. This translates into a life strategy of creating a series of steps, which will eventually lead you to accomplishing your objective.

Break each goal down into smaller steps, sometimes even baby steps. Smokers can begin cutting down their cigarette intake. When you want to start exercising, initially commit just five minutes a day to get used to it. If you need to clean the piles off your desk, take fifteen minutes a day to chip away at it.

That’s why it’s helpful to have a map, or steps, to refer to. It keeps you upbeat and allows you to chart your advancement. The difference between a long distance vacation and life is that life is a journey, not a destination. When you’ve dedicated yourself to improve your life, the changes you make are permanent. To maintain a healthy weight, you can’t go back to the old way of eating. You have to continue your new eating patterns.

Keeping your desk cleared off means taking care of things as they come in. You can’t exercise one day and expect that to build and keep muscle. Even a smoker quitting the habit has to hold onto their new mindset to remain a nonsmoker. It’s a continuous process of applying what you’ve learned to your life experience. You decide on the direction and steps, put them into action, and one mile at a time, you’ll reach your goal.

Affirmation
The Universe wants me to have a greater experience of Life. It’s up to me to open my awareness to accept more good in. I now map out the steps that will take me to a goal that will improve my quality of life. I dedicate myself to take action and each step I accomplish brings me closer to my objective. The Universe guides me along the way, inspiring me, bringing me everything I need to reach my destination.

Copyright 2008 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

self improvement, self help, personal growth, personal development, motivation, productivity, inspiration