Yoga Goals. Perhaps you are looking for just a little more flexibility. Maybe there is an elusive, awkward, yet somehow beautiful pose you are dying to master. Or possibly you are craving that satisfying feeling of being grounded, connected to more inner peacefulness. Whatever your goals for your yoga practice, sometimes they have a way of becoming evasive. Even daunting. So where to begin? I suggest we keep it simple.
#1. Redefine Success (and Failure)
Start with svadhyaya (self-reflection), and consider what success would really look, taste, smell, sound, and feel like. [Yes, brownie points if you can bring in all the senses to your visualization, because it helps the brain make it seem more real, more attainable.] Beware the habit of defining success by someone else’s (your parents’, friend’s, or even society’s) definition. Tap into your bhavana and craft your sankalpa. Journal entries and vision boards may even be in order! Or perhaps just a sticky note on the bathroom mirror – whichever helps you most.
Then breakdown any long-term goal into short-term success points along the way. For example, if I would love to practice the arm balance Tittibhasana (firefly pose) with mastery [meaning I strike a balance between the effort and ease whilst balancing on my hands and lifting the entire weight of my lower body to hover over the floor while my legs are extended out long and my body folded awkwardly in half… yeah, makes me tired just thinking of it! How do I find the repose in that pose?!]… Well, then I consider the core and arm strength, range of motion for hips and spine, and sense of humor required to find ease in such a pose. Next, I break it down into a plan of preparatory postures, core work, arm strengtheners, etc. that would get me there. And I am open to trying different approaches along the way, like outside the box ideas for props in arm balances.
To work backwards from an end goal and consider in detail the steps on the road to get there helps create an enjoyment of the process itself. And that keeps the motivation going. Appreciate the almost-failures and the near wins for their ability to be the carrot on the stick that propels us forward. This is what Sarah Lewis refers to in her TED Talk, when she explains how “coming close to what you thought you wanted can help you attain more than you ever dreamed you could.”
And as you envision and work on each success point along the way, remind yourself that “failure” isn’t missing the goal. Failure is when we just stop trying.
#2. Choose a Keystone Habit to Work
Some of us have lofty goals, which is great – dream big, my friends! Lofty goals come with lengthy to-do lists of success points that can be discouraging though. So, consider starting with just one keystone habit that you can easily add into your daily routine that will get the momentum going. Remember, we are keeping this road to success simple (read: do-able) after all. Your keystone habit is your sankalpa (a vow with one-pointed intention).
As another example, if my goal is to make feeling grounded my new modus operandi, then my success points would be practicing asana (postures) and dharana (meditation) daily, because those practices get me to that grounded feeling. You get good at what you practice, so to be “good” at feeling grounded, to make that feeling like a familiar old habit, then daily practice is necessary. But do I have time or energy to realistically commit to 90 minutes of asana and dharana. Nope! So, instead, I add a keystone habit to my morning: I spend the first 15 minutes of every day – pre-coffee even! – doing bitilasana-marjaryasana (cat-cow poses) and supta baddha konasana (supine butterfly pose) with feather-light breath meditation. It need not be a grand gesture. It just has to be do-able. I can commit to this fifteen minutes daily and build a new habit that, little by little, builds up my “grounded muscles”, and, more likely than not, evolves on its own into practicing 30 or 60 minutes several times a week, because keystone habits have a way of naturally snowballing.
And, in this example, I remind myself that if I oversleep and miss a day, I have not failed, because I can and will do it the next morning. Failure isn’t missing one daily keystone habit goal. Failure is when we just stop trying.
#3. Show Up!
If you are like me, you are an excellent visualizer and stellar planner, but terrible at executing those plans and taking action. So daydreams just stay dreams. Step three is where we must spend the bulk of our energy. Once we check the boxes on visualizing and planning, we have to take action and show up.
Eighty percent of life is showing up.
Woody Allen
Plan to spend 8o% of your energy in this getting-it-done step. Tapas (a sanskrit word often translated as heat, or even, to burn off with fiery heat) is the work in our yoga practice that brings about the change and transformation (think: the way heat cooks, changes, converts carefully measured and planned ingredients into a delicious stew). The practice, the work, the showing up and applying a little heat, requires the bulk of our attention and energy.
So, visualize. Plan. Then pause the visualizing and planning to just take that master plan for a test drive. Schedule your plans into your day and get them done – even if it is only 15 minutes a day. Book that appointment with yourself, because you are oh-SO-worth-it… because your keystone habit might evolve into more than you ever dreamed it could.
If you talk about it, it’s a dream, if you envision it, it’s possible, if you schedule it, it’s real.
Tony Robbins
And as much as I would love to wax poetic about this step along the road to success, this is where we start to step away from the screen so we can get up and do. I realize for some of us the doing is so much easier said than done, but remember this road to success is “simple” even if it isn’t easy. I have never found an easy road to success, but it isn’t complicated. Just show up and get it done one day at a time.
#4. Remember: 5 Minutes Counts
If you see a trend of self sabotage – overcommitting, being overly critical, procrastinating – know that you are not alone. Check out Becky Kane’s article about the science behind achieving long-term goals.
Instead of putting off for tomorrow something you could do today, commit to doing just 5-15 minutes of that something today. Don’t set it aside for your Future Self. Let your Present Self dip your toe in and test the waters – just 5-15 minutes at a time. What little something could you do daily? Because yes, even 5 minutes counts!
Skeptical? Try it for the next month and see what evolves. If nothing comes of it, you’ve only lost 5 minutes from your days, right? My experience though leads me to feel confident that you will have an entirely different outcome.
Practice and all is coming.
Sri K. Pattabhi Jois
How do you define success? What keystone habit will get the ball rolling?
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