If you have been studying personal development at all in the last few years you know that there are a few basics self improvement ideas everyone agrees on.  You have to have goals, they have to be written down, and you have to focus on them wholeheartedly.

Many self-help gurus will also tell you that appreciation is important.  Being appreciative of the wonderful things you already have in your life, and I’ve found this to be absolutely true.  Even if you don’t believe in the Law of Attraction (which I do!) you know that when you are focused on things that are working in your life, successes you are having, and the day to day things that bring you joy, you will be more positively focused and will have more and more successes.

Here’s where it gets challenging for many people.  When faced with some of the circumstances of their day to day life they find it hard to be appreciative, or sometimes even to find anything in their life to be appreciative of.  Or they will do their best to constantly focus on the positives but they don’t REALLY feel that appreciative.  They are simply going through the motions of appreciation as they think it will get them out of their situation, but in this case they are just focused on the desire to get out of their situation.  This kind of thinking is not only not beneficial, but it gets people more and more trapped where they don’t want to be.

So how can you change your IMMEDIATE circumstances enough to help you feel appreciation and see improvement in your situation?

The solution starts as an exercise you can do every day until it is just your way of living.  It’s what I call Activating the Essence of Your Desires.

First you must to the work to find out what IS the essence of your desire. What do you want?  I mean specifically…what is your specific goal.  Think about that goal and the specifics you identified as being important to you.  Now think about why do you want that goal?  Why did you pick that particular aspect to include in your goal?

For example, I have a goal to write and publish a book.  More specifically I want the book to be available on Amazon, I want it to appeal to people who are looking for a fiction novel that is positive and uplifting to read, something inspiring.  I want to sell a million copies.

I want to do this because writing makes me feel Alive, it makes me feel more ME.  Also, I feel that part of my purpose in life is to reach as many people as I can around the world and help them to think, change, and develop themselves further.  Help them achieve success. I personally have always found stories more uplifting and interesting than non-fiction, though nonfiction has helped me to grow and expand.  Reaching these people around the world would make me feel empowered and, again, more me.

When I reach my goal I will feel more alive from the actual writing, and empowered by the amount of people I have been able to reach and inspire (thus available on Amazon to the world…and selling a million copies). The essence of my goal is feeling Alive and Empowered. These are the aspects of myself that I am seeking to grow through the achievement of my goal.

Many people reading this blog will have goals to make a certain amount of money. What are you going to buy with that money? What specific aspects and features are you going to choose? Once you know that think about why you made the choices you made. What will it give you? What aspect of yourself will it help you to grow? Your feeling of freedom, your self confidence, your sense of peace…?

Once you know what you want AND the essence of your desires you can activate them in your life RIGHT NOW! This will help you to find relief from your circumstances and feel appreciative about where you are and where you are going. It will also make the actual desires show up much more quickly in your life.

Activating the essence of your desires is simple. If the essence of your desire is the feeling of freedom, what can you do right now today that will make you feel free? Even just a bit more free than you feel right now? Just a small tip, I guarantee it is NOT switching on the tv and channel surfing. It can be as simple as going for a walk, having an icecream, visiting a friend, building something, drawing something creating something. Now do it. And enjoy it. And appreciate it!

When I realized that the essence of my desires (all my goals) is Aliveness (feeling more vital and ME), Empowerment, and Freedom I began to find ways to feel each of these feelings daily. I put a note next to my bed that says “Today I will feel Alive, Empowered, Free!”, I taped a note on my computer that says, “Will this make me feel Alive, Empowered, or Free?” I began to feel excited and sure of achieving all my goals, even the scary long term ones! I began to spring out of bed, really feeling different every day. I began to make better choices and not waste a day feeling sorry for myself. And get this, within two weeks…

I felt like I was there already! I felt like I already had achieved all my goals, all I had to do was continue taking the actions and following my instincts. That uncertainty was completely gone. And people began to show up with opportunities and resources that would accelerate me towards my goals much faster than I ever thought possible.

So what is it you want? Why? And what can you do to feel that right now, today?