Wanting.

Prologue

I don't know about you, but having New Year's Eve on Sunday night, New Year's Day on Monday, and then Tuesday an "off any calendar" day in the main, wreaked havoc with my personal year-end sum up and look-out for 2024. (I always have to check that usage--is it wreaked or wrecked? The online gurus said wreaked is really right--just so you know.)

Then this week, I've been following with interest the NYT series by Jancee Dunn, The 6-Day Energy Challenge. As with many of these "advice for better living" features, so much of it is already familiar. But this time around, and as a side note the series is really good advice for living better with greater joy and ease, it almost seemed like the NYT was following MY lead! Well not exactly my lead, but the teachings and practices of the Daily SOS program--that I wrote a bit about a couple of months ago. The principles of goals, vision, flow, and surrender, and the "partnership" with a higher power are here again, our creative selves, and being able to lose ourselves in something we love to do. I know it's crazy, but I take a particular pleasure from preempting the NYT on Hummingbird. I can't help it, but I do-- like when we were all over Snoopy, and then, there it was a couple of days later in the Times. I'm sorry, I digress. But when what we are talking about is a timely topic being explored in the NYT, it makes me feel like we are all on the right track over here at HB.

I really enjoyed rereading this post about "Wanting" and surrender. I hope you will too. It's perfect for beginning 2024, and this mega snowflake, wintry mix kind of day we are having here in NY.

And do check out Jancee Dunn's series. It's worthwhile as you look forward to an energized New Year, one that is easier, more joyful, and otherwise so much more than you anticipate. Cheers to that!

Wanting.

Last October I was invited to join a "Beta" group, for free. All of us in banking dread being “Beta,” but this was something that I knew would help someone I know well work out some kinks in a new project, and maybe I would even come out with a few takeaways after a month of doing so. The purpose of the group is to have a daily 1/2 hour of learning and practice (meditation) with the goal of harnessing one's spiritual power for success. Success being defined as creative and spiritual growth in any number of things, as unique as each of the individuals invited to participate, so for example, business, entrepreneurship, scientific discovery, technology, writing, the arts, relationships, physical training, sports, the list is endless.

Surprisingly, it’s been 10 months and I've stuck with it. The group has grown steadily and organically. The founder is a serially successful entrepreneur that believes that success can be achieved with joy and ease--that's how he did it--after 15 years of prior "grinding" and much frustration.

In today's "Huddle," what the meet-up is called, we had around 50 people on Zoom, and the lesson and practice were extraordinary. So much so that I'd like to share it with you.

One of our main sources of unhappiness is "wanting." That is wanting something that is not matching up with one's reality; envisioning it and not veering despite the frustration and bad feeling the "lack of success" brings forward. There is a distinct feeling of "lack." The disconnect between the "want" and reality causes us to react with spurts of nearly frantic energy. We feel we must work harder to bring this want to bear. Considerable discomfort results from the fear that the outcome we want so much might not in fact ever come to fruition. We talked about the need to let it go--that thing, that outcome in our heads that we are obsessed with--maybe for years. It is suggested that when we do, we give it space to happen, with the help of our higher power that will get it on track, as it should be for what should happen. Maybe not exactly the way and the end result you have in your head-- probably better. Our meditation was a surrender practice. We surrendered the "want" to our higher power, recognizing that the vision we hold is right where it needs to be right now.  It was freeing, exhilarating, and peaceful.

Later today I was thinking about my life as it is now, it's pretty good--great really. While we all have “wants” we can surrender, when it comes to the substantive, I'm not really wanting anything!

I remembered that my brother Jeff told me weeks before he died that he was overall happy with his life, that he didn't feel he missed out because he "hadn't had hot chocolate in Belgium." And here I am full circle with that thought, only I am lucky enough to have years ahead of me to enjoy life and the benefits of Jeff's wisdom, and these new to me lessons and practices. WOW. Pretty great indeed.