Seven of Wands

“A young man on a craggy eminence brandishing a staff; six other staves are raised towards him from below. Divinatory Meanings: It is a card of valour, for, on the surface, six are attacking one, who has, however, the vantage position. On the intellectual plane, it signifies discussion, wordy strife; in business--negotiations, war of trade, barter, competition. It is further a card of success, for the combatant is on the top and his enemies may be unable to reach him.”
-A. E. Waite

Look at Seven of Wands. It’s a card that’s all about competition, strife, and success. But as I discussed a few weeks ago, one of the things you definitely don’t want to do is use other people as negative motivation. Frustration, anger, and triumph can be powerfully inspiring emotions, but you should be aiming them at abstract “enemies,” not actual persons. Therefore, it may seem like you don’t actually have anyone to strive against, not in a concrete, measurable way.

But of course you do! There’s always one person to compete with—yourself. So far, you’ve probably done a pretty good job of maintaining your carefully considered program. (And if you haven’t, well, you at least got back on track last week in order to enjoy the reward, right?) At any rate, now’s the time to start competing with yourself. You’ve done well so far, but tell me: can you do even better?

This may seem needlessly masochistic. After all, here you are making major life changes already. Why should you try and make your program even more difficult? There are two good reasons:

1. When you started, you were trying to make your program as painless as possible, capable of integrating seamlessly with your life. As a result, you may have chosen steps or activities based on how easy they are, not how overall effective they may be. Now that they’re successfully part of your schedule, though, you can start adding in some best practices that initially seemed too difficult. Just don’t go overboard and try to fix all the things. Some examples:
• If you’re working out, try adding another form of exercise. Runners should incorporate a short yoga routine or some weight-lifting a few times a week. Lifters ought to go for a brisk walk after dinner.
• If you’re working on saving money, consider starting a little side-hustle by working online, babysitting, selling crafts, etc. It’s easier to save your pennies when you have more of them.
• If your plan was to meditate daily, then perhaps add a second, shorter session of meditation, only 5-10 minutes, at a different time of day. Use your regular session to continue your basic practice, and the short session to experiment with new and different techniques.
2. The other reason you want to kick your program into high gear is purely intellectual. You should be getting rather comfortable with your plan now, which means you’ll soon start getting bored. Nothing undermines a solid plan like boredom! It’s especially prone to happen after the excitement of starting the program has worn off, which is probably starting to happen now. That’s why it’s a good idea to challenge yourself a bit. Adding activities will keep you from thinking, “But I did this last week! Do I really have to do it again?” Instead, you’ll be thinking, “Wow, this new technique is awesome!” or “I think I can do this and this to advance my program even faster than I thought.” Heck, even thinking “Jeez, this feels like too much!” is better than getting bored and restless.

Your task this week is to discover and implement at least one technique to improve yourself and your plan. It can be a small activity, but it should be done more than once this week, to help establish it as an additional habit.

Alternatively, try one new technique/activity/step every day this week, and decide which one you like best. Then incorporate it regularly into your schedule, and enjoy the great results!

Most of all, don’t forget to challenge yourself. And that doesn’t mean just work harder. Try something different, something that’s inspiring, something that takes you a little outside your comfort zone. Whatever you do, you want to turn your brain ON so it doesn’t turn you OFF from your long-term program.

If all this takes you a little off course, don’t worry: next week is all about checking in to make sure you’re on the right track. Good luck and have fun!