Have you been living as if there’s a point at which you’ll get it all done? If so, this is your wake-up call.
I clearly remember the first time I heard this from Abraham: “You can’t get it wrong and you never get it done.”
Oh my! I had tears in my eyes when I heard that because I felt like I’d been given a juicy, life-expanding permission slip from the Universe.
It was really the second part, “you never get it done” that sparked such an emotional response for me and brought me to tears.
And here’s why.
A lot of us are living our lives as if the goal IS to get it all done. To mark all the items off the To Do list. To finish all the projects. To get to a certain place in your career. To accomplish all the goals. To do all the things on your bucket list.
I know that’s how I used to approach life.
As if the goal were to get it all done.
I’m not even sure what I thought was waiting on the other side of getting it all done. Was it so I could relax and take a breath? What it so I could feel satisfied? Feel happy?
I don’t know exactly what I thought was waiting on the other side of done, but I know that’s how I was living. Like I couldn’t really enjoy life until I got more done, accomplished this and that, and reached certain milestones.
When you really stop and think about it, that’s a pretty crazy way to live.
- When you go see a movie, are you just trying to get through it, get to the end?
- When you pick up a book you’ve been wanting to read, is your goal to race through to the last page?
No, of course, not. You’re not rushing through the movie or the book just to get to the end, right?
Or think about when you go on vacation. You don’t go on vacation just to get to the end of it and mark it off your list, do you? Of course not! What a silly idea! You want the vacation for the fun of it, for the experience of it.
So why do we approach so much of life as something just to get done?
Why do we try to rush to the end, to some state of doneness—and think THEN we can be happy?
- If I can just get the promotion, then I’ll be happy.
- If I can just get my house decluttered from top to bottom, then I’ll be happy.
Here’s the thing: You can never get it done because even IF you really were able to mark off all the things on your To Do list, and finish all the projects, and accomplish all your goals…guess what?
Out of having done those things—out of your life experience of those projects and goals and bucket list experiences—NEW desires would be born.
Abraham refers to these new wants as rockets of desire.
And you would launch them from your new vantage point.
“In time, you will come to remember that you never get it done because you never cease your awareness of the contrast out of which is always born a new idea or desire.” —Abraham
There will always, always, always be more to do—not because you’re not doing enough or not doing it fast enough or not working smart enough, but because part of being a human is always wanting more. Our desires never stop evolving.
You can’t get it all done because the minute you do, there will be more you want to be, do, and have.
And that is a beautiful thing.
Your wants and desires expand YOU and they are also part of the expansion of the entire Universe. So it’s not about NOT wanting what you want or resisting your desires.
“You cannot ever get it done because you cannot ever cease to be, and you can never halt your awareness. Yet, out of your awareness will be born another asking, and each asking always summons another answering. Your eternal nature is one of expansion—and expansion is the potential for unspeakable joy.” —Abraham
Notice Abraham didn’t say rush through your life as if the overarching goal is to get it all done.
In fact, Abraham says: “What’s the big hurry? You’re not ever going to get it done, so what are you racing toward? Every single activity that you’re involved in is for one purpose only, and that is to give you a moment of joy. That’s why it all exists. Lighten up. Laugh more. Appreciate more. All is well.”
Are you enjoying the journey to your destination?
Which brings us to something we always come back around to with Law of Attraction—and that is journey versus destination. And maybe I shouldn’t frame it as journey VERSUS destination—pitting them against each other. Both are important.
So want what you want. Whatever destination you’re trying to reach, I think it’s fantastic!
- You want to buy the new house, get the promotion, lose 20 pounds. Bravo!
- You want to improve your relationship with your spouse, launch a business, make more money. Good for you!
- You want to be more mindful, have more fun, take a fabulous vacation, go for it!
The destination you’re trying to reach is perfectly wonderful. There’s nothing wrong with goals you want to achieve, shiny pennies you want to acquire, experiences you want to have, and states of being you want to embody.
So revel in that destination you’ve got your heart set on. Go ahead and make checklists and project plans. Have at it!
AND—so not versus, AND—enjoy the living daylights out of the journey to get there. Enjoy being on the way from over here to over there.
One of my all-time favorite quotes is this from Abraham:
“The achievement of anything that you desire must be considered success. But if you will let your standard of success be your achievement of joy, everything else will fall easily into place. For in the finding of joy, you are finding vibrational alignment with the resources of the Universe.”
I want you to achieve JOY on your journey to whatever destination you’re after. Just like you would savor a vacation, enjoying the moments, not rushing to mark it off your list as done—that’s how I want you to approach your life.
Because, let’s face it, the journey usually lasts longer than any destination at which you arrive. Annie Dillard says, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” Well, most of your days are made up of the journey.
What’s the point, really, if it’s all just a slog and a struggle to get things done? What’s the point if you’re so focused on reaching the destination that the journey is nothing but a blur. You’re not really present for it.
Just the other day a client said: Where did last year go? I was working so hard to build my business, but I don’t even really remember my life.
We are all freedom-seeking Beings.
We want to be liberated from shoulds and have tos. We want to be liberated from autopilot. We want to be liberated from getting things done at the expense of enjoying our lives.
So if the point is not to get it all done, why not just relax and enjoy the ride? Why not be more present and more playful?
“I am a growth-seeking Being, and it is exhilarating to remember that expansion is not only natural but inevitable. I love knowing that joy is simply a choice. So, since my expansion is inevitable, I choose to have all of it—in joy.” —Abraham
Joy is simply a choice. Don’t you love that?
If the point is not to get it all done and THEN be happy, that means we can go ahead and be happy now—while we’re doing and being and having.
Here’s your wake-up call.
Only you know how much of your life you’ve been approaching with the misleading and unhappy-making notion that there’s a point at which you’ll get it all done.
The point is not to focus on marking items off a list as you fast forward though life. You can never get it all done. So be on the lookout for when you find yourself thinking along these lines:
- If I can just achieve this goal, then I’ll feel better.
- If I can just finish this project, then I can relax.
- If I can just get this and this and this done, then I’ll be happy.
“You are growth-seeking Beings, and as you are moving forward, you are at your happiest; while, when you are have that feeing of stagnation, you are not at your happiest.” —Abraham
Again, getting every single thing done is NOT possible because you’re always going to be launching those new rockets of desire. But even IF it were possible to get it all done, that would be stagnation. It would be a kind of dead. And you wouldn’t like it.
Because YOU are a growth-seeking Being. You’re on a journey and alway will be. And the goal is not done. The goal is fantastic, fun destinations you want to experience and joy along your journey.
“You can’t get it wrong and you never get it done” has been the permission slip I didn’t even know I needed and wanted. As a result, I am so much more relaxed and joyful in my life these days.
I don’t think the goal is to get it all done.
I think the goal is joy. To enjoy doing it. To enjoy not doing it some days. I think we’re here to enjoy the journey and be over the moon when we reach destination X because it’s so much fun to arrive. AND AND AND getting there is equally as much fun.
You know, I used to measure my worth by my productivity. If I got a lot done in a day, I felt good about myself. If I didn’t get enough done—and really, what was EVER enough—well…I didn’t feel so great.
That behavior and mindset makes absolutely no sense to me these days. It’s like watching another person and being baffled by her choices, her outlook.
If YOU are someone who sometimes, often, always measures your worth by your productivity, I so encourage you to let this be the permission slip YOU need—and that deep down you want—to make a change.
“You will never get there, so enjoy your journey.” —Abraham
Whatever wonderful feeling you’re after—the one you think you’ll feel when everything is marked off your To Do list and all your projects have been completed—that wonderful feeling is available to you NOW. You don’t have to wait for conditions to line up to feel the way you want to feel.
Instead, you can feel the way you want right now, unconditionally, with lots and lots undone, yet to be done, and perhaps never done.
