ReMindful - How Meaningful Progress Happens (2:22 mins)

For most, the point of engaging in contemplative endeavours such as mindfulness and meditation is to get to experience the practice bearing fruit in our lives.

Whether its generally to be more present, appreciative, connected or equanimous amid our ever changing, and often trying, circumstances, or specifically to be a more patient parent, an understanding and compassionate boss, or an exquisite listener, the truth is the path of real progress can only ever be a non-linear one.

Because, counter to our preference - and often our expectation - there is no straight line between what we’re struggling with today and what we’re able to master in the future.

Thanks to our monkey minds, the reality is almost always: we set an intention for change and then our attention gets highjacked by something else. Sometimes for a moment, sometimes for days or weeks at a time.

We might fall prey to the pernicious belief that its because we were weak willed, or we didn’t value it enough.

But, as important as intentions are, progress towards the cultivation of wholesome qualities and behaviours is not dependent on the strength or conviction of our original intention. It’s entirely dependent on the frequency with which we are able to notice we’ve been distracted and to simply begin again.

Yet another way in which the boundary between formal meditation and the rest of life dissolves.

Its beginning again that catalyses progress. It doesn’t matter if we have to begin again a thousand times. All that matters is that we do.

It doesn’t matter how far off track you think you’ve strayed. Right now is as good as any other moment to remember, reset and recommit.

So, the secret to meaningful progress?

Set an intention, get distracted, and begin again.