How to Reach Your Goal (And Why Three People Showing Up Isn’t Failure)

a post by Claire O'Connor for the Tiny Buddha blog


“If you believe it will work out, you’ll see opportunities. If you believe it won’t, you will see obstacles.” ~Wayne Dyer

I’ve been part of a social meet-up group for the past few years, one that’s helped me through tricky times like quitting my job, dealing with anxiety, and having my first baby. When I first joined the group, there were three people who attended the events. (Yes, you read that correctly — three people!)

There were lots of people in the group itself, but only three of us would regularly attend monthly events. It meant that if one of us couldn’t make the meet-up, we would have to cancel the whole thing (or it would be a rather intimate evening).

And yet, in the last year, the monthly attendance has quadrupled. (Admittedly, that only takes us to twelve people… but that’s still a 300 percent increase!)

Not bad in a year (and anyone who’s organized an event knows how hard it can be to get people to actually show up). And we’re talking twelve “regulars” — people who love the meet-ups, and who come back time and time again, enthusiastic and inspired.

Plus, our attendance is still growing, and interest is mounting. Who knows where we’ll be in a year’s time!

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Which Clutter Personality Type Are You?

a post by Maureen K. Calamia for the World of Psychology blog



A cluttered room makes us feel overwhelmed and unable to focus, according to this study published in The Journal of Neuroscience. But clutter not only impacts our mental processing, it also affects us on every level, including physical, emotional and spiritual.

Clutter impacts our mental processing, but it also affects us on every level, including physical, emotional and spiritual. On a physical level, clutter prevents us from moving around freely and using our space to its fullest potential. Some people have entire rooms dedicated to storing stuff that they no longer need or use.

On an emotional level, it connects us to feelings of guilt (“How could I throw away this ugly lamp that my aunt got me?”) or fear (“I never have what I need when I need it”). These emotions build up over time and become fixed in our spaces, like they do in our minds!

On a spiritual level, clutter limits our ability to proceed on a spiritual path. We are not able to process the negative emotions and cannot move forward.

On every level, our homes mirror back to us what is going on in our lives and where we’ve put up obstacles. We intuitively know this and that’s why we are so interested in the topic.

According to the blockbuster sales of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, many of us are looking for guidance on decluttering our homes. But are we just using this as another avoidance tactic? Is even this topic of managing clutter itself a distraction? It can be for some of us.

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I found the related links useful as well.

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We Can’t Do Everything, But We Can Do More Than We Think

a post by Colleen Haggerty for the Tiny Buddha blog


“There are plenty of obstacles in your path. Don’t allow yourself to become one of them.” ~Ralph Marston

I was sitting in a self-improvement course listening to the facilitator’s instructions. “I want you to come up with a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal,” she announced. “This needs to be a stretch, something where you really put skin in the game. You have seven weeks to reach this goal.”

The rest of her instructions trailed off as I thought about which area of my life I wanted to improve. I overheard a few of my classmates talking to each other about their lofty physical goals. My body contracted when I heard them talking. I shrunk into my shame.

I couldn’t even run a 5k, I thought. I had lost my leg in a car accident thirty years previous and while there were many things I could do, running was not one of them. These days just walking was hard.

During our break, I found a place to be alone and take counsel with myself. I felt myself resisting the obvious goal. I sat down and shut my eyes. Can I do it? Can I walk a mile?

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