Create a daily practice and commit to your dreams

'Whatever the Universe brings me’ is a phrase I’ve heard uttered more times than I can count.

When someone says this in front of me, my response is typically, ‘but what do you want?’.

If you don’t know what you want, and are ordering ‘whatever’ for your life, indeed ‘whatever’ is what will come your way. However, it may not be the same ‘whatever’ you thought you might have someday. You're the one who has to commit to your path in order to get where you want to be.

Anytime you don’t own your dream, and leave it up to something ‘out there’ to maybe bring it to you, you’re not taking responsibility for it yourself.

Rather than leave your life completely in the hands of the Universe or some other entity, you can choose to aim yourself truly in the direction of your dreams, with a daily commitment to your goals. Even if you are unclear as to what your goals are, you can create a daily practice that helps you get to know yourself and your dreams.

This doesn’t mean you don’t get to ask for help, especially if you feel lost and unclear about what you do want. Ultimately, you have more power here than you might allow.

A daily practice is a practice you do daily.

Your practice may include making sure you eat good food, get plenty of sleep, meditate, sing, exercise, write in your journal, go for a walk, dance, chant, take time for gratitude, amusement, and awareness. Experiences that bring you joy are a wonderful part of a daily practice. A daily practice is about self care as much as it is about achieving your goals.

You can split up the elements of your daily practice into bite sized pieces throughout the day, and you can do different parts of your practice on different days. The point is to decide what you want to add to your day, then schedule it in and commit to it.

What are you working on now? What are your goals for this week, month, year? What do you want to create more space for, to accomplish, complete?

If you have tasks that are time consuming and difficult to do, why not add them to your daily practice in small timed chunks? Even if you just spend 15-20 minutes a day on a big task, you can get there a lot faster than not spending any time at all.

A daily practice can help you to focus on what’s important, and to create good daily habits. Daily habits help you to consciously make space for yourself.

Remember that procrastination and not choosing are also choices. When you allow others to choose for you, you are excusing yourself from taking responsibility for your own life. This is a big reason why I do not predict the future or tell my clients what they should do. That’s not my job, it’s theirs.

A daily practice changes how your life works. By making a conscious choice to show up for yourself, you create change on a deep level. Your goals become more grounded, within reach for you. Better yet, you become clearer about your own direction.

Your daily practice might be very simple and still work well for you. Consistency is more important than rigidity. A daily practice means that you have decided you are worth showing up for. You are minding your own business, which is you.

Taking care of yourself means you can have more energy, know your worth, feel good that you showed up again. Taking the time to take care of and listen to your body always brings you good results.

Be a professional and practice every day. Commitment makes you a pro instead of an amateur.

A garden needs tending daily, to help keep the weeds and pests out that will harm the plants. A daily practice is you tending your own garden. Unconsciousness and invalidation, as well as negativity, can build up inside of you if not checked.

Tend to your garden and welcome in your inspiration, as well as a happy positive attitude. Doing this daily works beautifully and gets you better results than only showing up once in a while.

If you think you don’t have the time for a daily practice, notice: how do you spend your time now? Can you spend less time on Facebook, or turn your phone off for a short period of time every day? What if you were to spend less time watching TV?

If you have goals that are important to you, and you want to create time for them, perhaps you can make the time happen.

You already have a daily practice, conscious or not, and you can create time for the things that are important to you. Meditating 15 minutes a day goes far and gives a lot back to you.

Commit to yourself, and others will line up to you. When you create space for yourself, you will have the focus and energy to get your work done, and that will get you much closer to your dreams and goals.

• ©Kris Cahill
  'Small Sunset and Clouds' ©Vera Kratochvil on PublicDomainPictures.net