I have been posting a bit about goal setting and wanted to clarify something. What if the goal you are looking at is all wrong? You want to start a new business right now, but maybe it’s best that you consolidate your finances first.

I had a friend many years ago who was quite ambitious in his own way. He had good stamina and staying power, but he was often digging himself holes that led to one disaster after another. He was so focused on the goal of getting the hole deep enough, that he never crawled out and took time to analyze what he was doing. It occurred to me that ambition can be a dangerous thing indeed.

We all need to be able to step back from time to time and embrace the analyzed life. As circumstances change with time, meditating on what your needs are can save you lots of anguish. Of course the flip side is that some of us just need to do anything to get ourselves out of a position or situation. Just dig and make the change.

In a sense true spirituality is the absence of ambition – the Taoist sage doesn’t need to know where he is going. This is the duality we face every day of our lives – how much to push for things and how much you let them be. The trick of this earthly dimension is to find that balance and hover around it.

An old Taoist saying…

Why must we do difficult things

Does the sun find it had to shine, the wind to blow, the river to run

Sun, wind, water, earth

They do what they must simply by being themselves