Key to Prosperity -- Introspection

I've never been very good at long-term goal setting. It seems like every time we try to articulate our goals, we end up in such a different situation that those goals no longer mean anything. Recently, I discovered another way of setting goals that seems to work better for me. But still, this is an area where I struggle.

Yet over and over I've read that it's incredibly difficult to put your financial life in order without having some goals to strive for. This is where introspection comes in. Because goal setting is often about doing. But knowing yourself well is about being. You might have goals that you know you need to meet in order to be more prosperous (like paying off debt). However prosperity is about being able to lead the kind of life you want. And that's much more dependent on what it is that you want, than what it is that you do.

So while obviously you have to set goals in order to reach them, beyond that, you have to know who you are and what you want to even set the right goals. Otherwise you run the risk of meeting your goals and then discovering they don't give you the kind of life you want.

I remember reading (but can't for the life of me remember where) that there are only two kinds of problems. One, you know what you want but haven't achieved it. Two, you don't know what you want. Clearly, you have to know what you want before you can get rolling -- and that's there introspection comes in.

Many people understand the value of being introspective, but I think that there are some common misperceptions about how to effectively introspect. We are a heavily navel-gazing society, with huge self help and self examination industries and yet we're still lost and confused.

Introspection isn't about making yourself feel important. A lot of people use introspection as a vehicle for elevating their own problems / issues / successes into high drama and criticality. Your stuff isn't any more critical than anyone else's stuff... except to you. And even then, if you look within so closely that you make mountains out of your little molehills, you won't end up benefiting. Don't get so myopic that you lose the larger picture.

Introspection isn't about dwelling on your problems, feeling sorry for yourself, or (above all) beating yourself up. If you sit down to examine yourself and start cataloging every bad choice you've ever made, STOP. You're doing it wrong. If it turns into a pity party about how bad everything is now, STOP. That's the opposite of helping.

At the same time, introspection isn't about pumping up your ego with your wonderfulness. Affirmations are useful, but telling yourself how great you are doesn't help you figure out who you are. Announce your affirmations to the universe, but let your own mind/heart/soul speak for itself.

Introspection is a value neutral exercise. It's not about dictating or about judging. It's about listening, honestly and objectively, to yourself. People with faith often talk about that "still small voice." They call it the voice of God's guidance. That's useful, but you don't have to go that far to realize that if you listen to the whispers inside you, you can learn an awful lot about yourself. Whether that information comes from God or your own subconscious isn't relevant here. The point is that you listen.

What kinds of things can you learn? You can learn what you need and what you really want. You can learn about what makes you happy and content. About what uplifts you and what struggles you find worth taking on. What your priorities and real values are. Who you really are (good or bad) right now. From this knowledge you can set useful goals, both material -- I want a home of my own -- and non-material (emotional, spiritual, pick your term) -- I want to be more generous.

It is at this point, once you really know yourself, that you can then makes changes in who you are and how you life. Without knowing yourself, you can't know what goals to set. Without clear goals, you will find it much harder to create the kind of life you want. So if prosperity is what you desire, you must discover what that means to you so you can define the goals to achieve it.

Useful Quotes on introspection:

It is by our innate wisdom that we enlighten ourselves, and even the extraneous help and instruction of a pious and learned friend would be of no use so long as one is deluded by false doctrines and erroneous views. As we introspect our minds with Prajna, all erroneous views will disappear of themselves, and just as soon as we realise Essence of Mind we will immediately arrive at the Buddha stage. When we use Prajna for introspection we are illuminated within and without and are in position to know our own nature. To realise our own nature is to obtain fundamental liberation.
A Buddhist Bible, First Edition, Dwight Goddard 1932

Our most important study is our own mind, not only the intellectual mind but the spiritual mind. "Know thyself" was inscribed on the temple of Apollo at Delphi; and it must be inscribed on our own temple, "over" the door of our mind. "Know thyself." We must become acquainted with our own mind.
Keep a True Lent, by Charles Fillmore, 1953

And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:

And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
King James Bible, I Kings 19:11-12

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,
The proper study of mankind is Man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic’s pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest,
In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast,
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reasoning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such
Whether he thinks too little or too much:
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused, or disabused;
Created half to rise and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled;
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!
Alexander Pope (1688–1744), British poet. An Essay on Man (Fr. Epistle II). . .

THE IMAGE

 Water on the mountain:
 The image of OBSTRUCTION.
 Thus the superior man turns his attention to himself
 And molds his character.

Difficulties and obstructions throw a man back upon himself. While the
inferior man seeks to put the blame on other persons, bewailing his fate, the
superior man seeks the error within himself, and through this introspection
the external obstacle becomes for him an occasion for inner enrichment and
education.

I Ching Hexagram 39. Chien / Obstruction