Chapter 27 ("Use Your Will") of the lovely little book Just One Thing by Rick Hanson talks about how to bring commitment to the pursuit of "your highest purposes, which lift you and carry you along". The author, in a gentle and encouraging style, focuses attention on four adjectives:

• Ardent — ... wholehearted, enthusiastic, and eager ... heartfelt and passionate about your aims and activities ...
• Resolute — ... wholly committed and unwavering ... an experience of absolute determination ...
• Diligent — ... conscious and thorough ... "love, take delight in" the stepping stones toward your higher purposes ... translate big purposes into small, doable daily actions ...
• Mindful — ... know if you're being willful or lackadaisical ... aware of your inner world ... recognize if you've grown willful to a fault ... able to make skillful course corrections that keep you aligned with your highest purposes.

And bottom-line, Hanson concludes with a reminder to do all of this with a happy spirit. "Take pleasure in the strength in your will, and the fruits it brings you."

^z - 2013-05-01