Dear readers,
Not only has another month passed by since I last wrote to you, but I also write this as we are leaving 2020 and entering 2021.
A new year we have all been waiting for and hopefully a better one than the one we have just endured.
As I realized that the first Friday of January is the first of January, I thought to myself that this would be the perfect opportunity to write about how to set your goals for the next year as I know that many have New Year resolutions.
And then I was inspired to do it a little bit differently, than just writing about how to set your goals. As I was listening to Alan Arkin´s book, Out of Mind.
In his book Alan Arkin describes a moment he has where he reaches, what we in NLP would call a high performance state. He is playing a tennis match with a guy who is so absorbed in his own performance that it does not seem to matter to him who or what is at the other side of the net and Alan Arkin is not only losing every game, but he is also getting frustrated with the fact that he feels little more than the ball machine.
Match after match Arkin loses, until one day he decides to not look at himself but look at what does this situation require of me. If I am to be the ball maybe I should just play the ball back to my opponent so he will get the best possible shot.
Akin decides to play the best possible ball for his opponent and he begins to win every single shot. He does this for 15min until his hand is injured and they have to stop the game. He forgot about his ego and entered a high-performance state that he had not experienced before.
He describes his state as a wonderful place to be that he wishes he could be in all the time. However, it was done with so much energy his hand gave in.
As I listened to Arkin´s voice read his own book I could not help but to ask myself, what would happen if we all did this in 2021. If we all asked ourselves that question, what does this situation require of me and the act accordingly.
Beside personal goals for 2021 what does it require of each and every one of us to get past the health crisis so we can all recover?
Help is on its way and there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel but what can we all do on a personal level, so we move away from this situation collectively.
As the Dalai Lama once said, “if you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito”.
I wish you a good 2021, with lots of health, wealth and happiness.
I hope you are as happy as you would like to be and remember it is free to be kind.
All the best
Ivalo