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Preview:
It’s that time of year again. During the first month of the year, the spotlight is on setting goals for the coming year. They’re called New Year’s resolutions and often these resolutions are done tongue-in-cheek with a just-under-the-radar consciousness that “no one keeps these things, anyway.” But in reality, making quality New Year’s resolutions should be viewed as prime-time training for the goal setting—and keeping—that we should be doing throughout the year and throughout our lives. It should also be a time for thinking about how our personal transformations can contribute to transforming the bigger—beyond ourselves—picture.
Just as a journey of a thousand miles starts with one small step, most times being part of the
bigger picture means taking small steps within our own lives. Recently, I rediscovered the marvelous programming on Lakeshore Public Television, WYIN, Chicago’s sister PBS station in northwestern Indiana (lakeshoreptv.com). I happened to tune into Michael Bernard Beckwith’s PBS Special, “The Answer is You.”
Beckwith, as many of you know, is the founder of Agape International Spiritual Center (agapelive.com) in California, originator of the Life Visioning Process, and one of the spiritual leaders featured in the movie, The Secret. The special was great, but it was the words spoken during Beckwith’s on-air appearance at WYIN that hit home for me. Beckwith suggested that each of
us ask the following three questions every day:
How can I give? How can I grow? What can I celebrate?
That suggestion really resonated with me. They are the perfect addition to my practice of listing the things that I am thankful for each day. I didn’t have to wait until the New Year and make it part of a resolution to add this to my daily spiritual practice. I started to ask these questions every day—and I’m already seeing the transformative impact on my life. I’ve begun to share these questions with my friends. They have stimulated much food for thought and interesting conversation!
This is a small step toward affecting the world beyond myself. But, as Beckwith states in “The
