Each End is a New Beginning

We begin at the beginning. What happens next depends on our focus and flexibility. Then, with effort and skill, and a lot of help, we accomplish what we set out to do.

We achieve our goal, finish on time and under budget, keep our resolution, set a personal best. We meet our commitments, finish the exam, complete our screenplay or our film, graduate, make the sale. We do what we set out to do.

I am very motivated to accomplish objectives, meet goals, check off the boxes. Few things are as satisfying to me as a job well done. I was brought up to find the right answer and get things done. I am willing to work very hard, very strategically, for long hours, to accomplish the goal of getting results.

One of the things I have learned as I have become more monastic is things are very rarely ever finished.

Each goals we set, and accomplish, teaches us lessons which give us new challenges. Each task we complete opens doors that give us new opportunities. Each time we do something, or even try to do something, we learn about ourselves and how to do things differently.

I talk with people every week who have set out in life with a plan and expectations, and have achieved what they set out to do. They have not found the meaning they expected to find as the result of meeting their goals. They feel stuck in their own lives, that they have come to an end and have no further to go.

As we work together, they often come to see that each end is a new beginning. They realize that each completed task is a step further on the journey of exploration. We are not racing to the end, we are exploring new ways to begin.

What opportunities are beginning in you?  How are you exploring new ways to begin today?

[Image by bjornmeansbear]