Time Mastery Now

Moving from an outer life focus to an inner life focus defines a key phase in a persons spiritual development. Living from this key stage you begin to start setting goals for your life by aligning your energy with the guidance from your more intuitive Self. At those lower levels of personal and spiritual development goals are mostly driven by ego desires. I use the word lower here; this isn’t to be regarded as inferior.

The movement through stages of personal and spiritual development is a process. You do not skip one stage and then instantly leap into higher states of consciousness. Each higher level of personal and spiritual awareness involves control over that stage. It is this mastery that supplies the drive and the power to push on through all the resistance to the next stage. During all stages of personal and spiritual awareness you will experience resistance.

When the personality begins to become more integrated the pursuit of personal and spiritual development goals becomes less driven by the ego and begins to enter a state of flow. There is less of a requirement to drive the results of goal setting. The drive that was once moved from the will of the personality starts to become a willingness that then expresses your heart’s desire. This willingness, rather than the focus on willfulness, becomes the drive that then manifests your wished for goals.

This higher alignment with your personal and spiritual goals is a process of allowing. All wisdom teachings suggest that this way of approaching life is a superior way. When I use the word superior I don’t intend this as a judgement but more as a suggestion of a life lived from a sense of balance and inner flow. This higher process of personal and spiritual awareness has been given different names. It has been called the Tao. This superior way is the invitation contained in the wisdom teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. It is part of one’s true spiritual education and should be part of the education that you receive in centres of higher education. It is unfortunate that most centers of higher education ignore such wisdom teachings.

The individual that is able to take advantage of this higher wisdom teaching is the person who can trust their intuition and their inner voice. Such a person will have developed a degree of personal integration whereby they are then able and willing to trust the still small voice within. If one mistrusts their interior knowledge or lives a driven life, this power tends not to be made available to them. Such an individual will tend to set goals from the directive of the ego self and then use the power of their will to drive forward the demands of the ego. This is the case even though such goals are being driven at the cost of their soul or true Self.

At the lower phases of personal and spiritual development goal setting can become, as many behavior’s do become, addictive. This sort of addiction nevertheless, is socially approved of and is very often rewarded. Where the practice of goal setting is being driven solely from the will this tends to reflect that the practice is being done in a half hearted way. This approach to goal setting result’s in the development of a one-sided personality. Such a person becomes more and more driven. They become more isolated from the potential fullness of a life lived from a more integrated persona.

Goals, that are lived in alignment with spiritual values, aligned with the personal power of the will and the willingness to trust the creative process leads to a life of harmony. It is learning how to be in flow. It is allowing the drive of Creation to create forms in this world through you. This way of setting goals is the way that the wisdom of the I Ching refers to as ‘the way of the superior man ‘ (although this applies just as much to men and women). This way of the superior man or woman is very different from the way that the majority of people practice the setting of goals. The major focus on setting goals very often tends to be purely self serving with no relation to the higher Self.

The practice of goal setting, like any other aspect of life, is a matter of maintaining a sense of balance. If goal setting becomes one-sided as, frequently happens, then life will create situations that will pull you back into balance. Quite often such a pull is resisted by the ego. This resistance is called suffering. It’s great to have goals. Remember, however, to keep a balance between the drive to do and the willingness to simply accept what Creation is more than willing to give. When you are willing to accept the real power of personal and spiritual development then you have a tendency to be gifted the result you had been asking for without a great deal of effort.

Tony Cuckson writes and promotes personal and spiritual development courses. He is also a storyteller who guides you to finding meaning and purpose through life stages and life transitions. Using various maps of the stages of personal and spiritual development together with mythology, story telling and personal and spiritual development practices you are guided to live your One Wild and Precious Life. To find out more about various stages of personal and spiritual development and the power of story telling and poetry to transform your life visit http://www.tonycuckson.com