Achieve Your
‘Someday’ Dream in 10 Minutes a Day
www.take10now.com
By Rory Cohen and Cornelia Flannery, Entelekey, Inc.
"I maintain that men [sic] could be incomparably happier than they are, and that they could, in a short time, make great progress in increasing their happiness, if they were willing to set about it as they should. We have in hand excellent means to do in 10 years more than could be done in several centuries without them, if we apply ourselves to making the most of them, and do nothing else except what must be done." Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646 - 1716) a German philosopher and mathematician.
Aristotle observed that every living organism has within it a force, a vitality that propels that organism to be fulfilled. He called that state of being entelechy, or entelekey, as we call it.
Everyone has an entelekey, a vital force that is yearning to be expressed. The entelechy of an acorn, for example, is to be an oak, and given the right environment and nutrition, that’s what it will be. Try as we might, we can’t turn the acorn into a pine or a willow. Our entelekey is uniquely our own, and is somehow encoded in our very being. Essentially, our entelekey is who we were born to be.
Unfortunately, many of us are busy trying to turn our acorns into pine trees and we don’t even know it. We try and we struggle and fight for success, getting only more trying and struggling and fighting as a result.
When we can know our entelekey, and make our thoughts, intentions and actions line up with that vitality, we find that we struggle less and enjoy more, achieving marvelous results along the way.
One way to know our entelekey is to look at those ‘someday’ dreams we all have but somehow never get around to, or that just seem too unattainable to begin. It may appear counterintuitive, but we have found that as people express their entelekey, even though it may not seem directly related to the ‘goal’ they have been trying to achieve, they will begin to see extraordinary results in other areas of their lives.
One of our executive clients, for example, wanted to double his sales results. When we moved more deeply from his goal to his entelekey, the force within that was calling for expression, he realized that what he wanted was to experience more energy and vitality in his life. He took on an exercise goal, began working with a physical trainer and ended up doubling his sales without really focusing on them. As we express our entelekey, we expand our creative capacity and begin to see growth on many levels.
Why would we suppress our entelekey? There are many reasons we give ourselves: I don’t have the time, I’ll wait until the kids are gone or until I retire or until I have more money or more education. All these reasons validate our decision to put that dream on the ‘someday’ list, where can sit for years, sapping our creative energy.
The good news is that you don’t need much time, money, experience or any other resource to get started on your dream. In fact, a commitment of just 10 minutes a day, taken consistently, is enough to get over the overwhelm hump, get the creative energy flowing again, and start seeing some real results.
Here’s what you can do in just 10 minutes today.
1. Consider your ‘someday’ dreams carefully. What is your life calling out for? Take 10 minutes to write out a list of all the things you’ve been thinking about doing but haven’t done.
2. Choose one thing on that list to experiment with. It doesn’t matter which one you choose. In our coaching programs, people start with one thing and as they learn the Take 10 system, start seeing results in other areas. We soon see people using the system for everything from clearing off their desk to starting a global program to end world poverty.
3. Spend 10 minutes focusing on that one thing you’ve selected. Imagine that you have successfully achieved whatever dream you’ve chosen. Fuel the fantasy with as much positive energy as you can. What would you be feeling if you woke up this morning and that dream had come true? That’s the feeling you want to focus on. If you do nothing else with your ‘someday’ dream but spend 10 minutes every day doing this exercise, you WILL see results.
4. Ask yourself “What is one small step I can take now that would get me closer to this imagined future?” Can you make a phone call, spend 10 minutes on internet research, pick up some supplies the next time you are at the store? In the Take 10 system we call this exercise ‘chunking it down’.
Make your action steps small and easy and you will find yourself quickly moving forward. It is not unusual for our clients to call us with messages like: “Can you believe it, I made one call and the next thing I knew…..!” Try it out for yourself on one of your ‘someday’ dreams. At the very least you’ll be saying “I’m doing something” instead of “Someday”……
© Copyright 2006 Entelekey, Inc. All rights reserved.
Rory Cohen and Cornelia M. Flannery (www.take10now.com) are known for their expertise on the psychology of success. They co-founded Entelekey, Inc. (www.entelekey.com), a company dedicated to providing simple products and services that support people in fulfilling their potential. They have made their Take 10! system, a powerful and uniquely simple system for achieving extraordinary results, available in the newly released, Take 10! How to Achieve Your Someday Dreams in 10 Minutes a Day. Rory and Cornelia have been featured guests on various television and radio shows, including The View, CNN, and Public Radio. Their national print media appearances include the September 2006 cover story, “Start a Business in 10 Minutes a Day”, for Entrepreneur Magazine and a spread in People Magazine.
Rory holds a Masters degree in Health Administration from Yale University and a Masters degree in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica. She has over twenty years of experience in executive leadership, management consulting, training and coaching.
Cornelia received her Bachelors degree in Marketing from the University of Scranton and her Masters degree in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica. She has over fifteen years of experience assisting individuals and entrepreneurs on achieving personal fulfillment and professional effectiveness.
They can be reached through their website: www.entelekey.com