New Year’s Reslutions Don’t Work Because Your Power is in WHEN You Focus On.

As this blog post is written close to the end of the year, most people are thinking about their future and their New Year’s Resolutions, it is a poignant time to consider what we focus on. Perhaps more accurately, WHEN we focus on. Do read this all the way through, as it might take some effort to grasp. It may be new to some and it may be strange to others. Definitely, it is worth getting the end result is your freedom to choose.

I’m sure you have heard that we get what we focus on. That is indeed evidently true. When you focus on getting a goal, then generally speaking, you would get your goal.

It is the vernacular of all coaching and goal setting. Since Wealth Catalyst is a personal Success Coaching service particularly for business owners and those individuals want to re-design their life, it is timely to re-emphasise, where (and when) a person focuses their attention is directly related to their success.

When one tends to focus on the past, one is limited by what has happened that cannot be changed. It is fixed, stuck, set, dead and buried. Go ahead, try and change it.

See! You cannot touch it. The past physically no longer exists and yet we see, feel, hear and think about it in our memories. (Digging up the past is another story) We also can observe the consequences of the past existing in now and you might be experiencing this now.

Let’s take where you live as an example. You are living where you are right now because you moved here at some point in the past. Now, looking to the past, you might have hated the move or you might have loved it. You might have resented the circumstances that caused you to move or it might have been empowering experience. You might have damaged your favourite keepsake or lost a lot of possessions in the move. Regardless of what happened back then, you can’t change it and now you are here, where you are right now, with what you have got. That’s only one example in the multitude of streams of an experience.

Now let’s contrast this with the opposite. When one tends to focus on the future, one is unlimited in possibilities that do not exist yet, constantly changing as new possibilities arise. If you do not like the idea of being limited, here you are unlimited in the future. Let us test it out. Let’s try and reach out into the future to change it. Well, if it is unlimited in possible outcomes, then of course we can change it. But, it does not exist yet, so the future also cannot be changed… yet.

Back to the ‘where you live’ example. You could start to choose where you live next. You could live in a mansion or you might share a house with someone. You could live overseas or you may move two streets away. All these outcomes and the resulting experiences are entirely possible and could happen. And at the same time, as the possibilities are endless, could also NOT happen. What happens next, in the future, depends on … (drum roll please)… the present. I bet you came to that conclusion as well.

The concept of time cannot exist with the three fundamental aspects of past, future and present. Some might say that time does not exist and yet, we see the evidence of the past and we cannot help but think of the future. What that past or future is filled with, is another story. (perhaps another blog post?)

Have you noticed, as we look to the future, it curiously resembles the past? For some people, this is particularly personal and painful. A good example could be the frustrating pattern of have all the failed relationships resembling each other. Perhaps, a more general example of seeing modern inventions in the computing and communications world being seen before in the past on the movie screen in the form of Star Trek or Star Wars!

Apparently, there seems to be a connection between the future and the past. The consequence of that connection leads to a conclusion and that exists for us as a generalisation. That generalisation is just that, “if it worked in the past, then it must work in the future.”

What would the world be without generalisations. Look at a chair. If I bought the chair, I sat in it and It worked, then why would I question the ability of the chair to hold me in it? It makes sense and we need generalisations. Yet there comes a time when this is no longer true. It is logical then, that generalisations are not the truth. Therefore, the past has nothing to do with the future because they are separate.

The present is all you have got. Now! You cannot touch the past and the future may or may not happen, regardless. The present you can do so much with. The present is where the power is. Power is the ability to do work. You can take action now.

Any action caused in the present results in a consequence in the future. Here is the most profound principle of present time: After the action is taken, it is now in the past. Gone! Done! Set! Stuck! Dead and buried! Cannot be changed. One can only resort to another action, done in the present, in order to cause another possible future, that may or may not happen. Clear?

Take some time to digest this. When you get this, an amazing possibility emerges, that you can influence your life by your actions, now.

Wisdom is “being in the present”, because that is all you have in reality. Wisdom is understanding the limits & learning of the past, considering the future and its potential consequences and then being in the present. Wisdom is being in the present because the present is the source from which all action can be generated.

So, as you consider the year gone and the year coming:

1) It is time to learn from the past and let it be in the past, prudently knowing that it has nothing to do with the future.

2) Consider your future, what you want and how you want it. Don’t put too much stock into exactly how it should be.

3) Then take some meaningful actions now. Meaningful because these actions are aligned with your values and what you want to create. Meaningful because you have learnt from the past and considered the future. Meaningful because you are in touch with reality now.

So, New Years Resolutions do not work.  They do not works becase people focus on the past and don’t consider their future.

May your new year be your best year yet and that you create your dreams today!
Adrian