Giving Myself Up To It

Être et avoir (to be and to have) : a struggle of seemingly opposing viewpoints.

I love these kinds of ideas. I love wrestling with the nature of them. I was reading Marion Milner during my morning’s golden hour (when no one else is yet awake and the new day is just stirring, I read and journal and ponder) and these were the concepts I was wrestling with this morning.

“I wanted to get the most out of life, but the more I tried to grasp, the more I could not understand at all that my real purpose might be to learn to have no purposes”

If I believe that the magic is to be found in the surrender – in the being – how then do I marry that with the idea of perpetual forward motion in line with achieving my goals – the having?

  • How can we avoid striving if we are to set goals and measure achievements in order to feel successful/have success?
  • How can we avoid dissatisfaction in the here and now if we have not yet achieved the goals we have set for our success?
  • How can we know what purposes we should choose in life?

I believe in Brian Tracy’s concept of finding a major definite purpose (MDP) and that if you haven’t got one, your MDP is to find one. But I also believe that true freedom lies in the ability to surrender, to stop grasping.

“I did not know I could only get the most out of life by giving myself up to it.”

This morning’s resolution was a reminder that if your everyday activities are in line with your MDP, it’s all good. The next step (and the one perhaps most often overlooked) is to introduce present-moment awareness. To become mindful of each and every action in the very moment. This allows you to stay in the present, avoiding any dissatisfaction because you have not yet reached your future goals.

“My greatest need might be to let go and be free from the drive after achievement – if only I dared”

Today I am daring myself to let go of the expectation of achievement, by practicing mindful awareness of each moment, safe in the knowledge that each of my activities is in line with my MDP.

Do you believe in having a major definite purpose in life? Have you discovered it? Are your everyday activities in line with it?

>>> all quotes from A Life of One’s Own, Marion Milner