The "XY" Principle

The “XY” principle is something that came to me recently and explains desire and achieving in a basic sense.nnFirstly “X” is what you desire and “Y” is what’s required in order to have “X”, so if you want “X” then you need to do “Y”.nnLet’s say you want a house (X), you think about the area you want it to be, how many bedrooms, the type of kitchen, the amount of land, etc. The thoughts fill you and you feel the inspiration. You begin doing research on the Internet to find it. You then find a couple of homes that look like they fit all the criteria and you go to the bank and sit with the manager to work out how much of a loan you can service and then go to look at the houses and put in an offer. All these steps that happened after the thoughts of your desire are your “Y”.nnNow what you find when your desire fills you with enthusiasm, is that you FEEL INSPIRED to take steps. If the steps feel like a natural progression, it all flows beautifully but if you find yourself beginning to force yourself to do things because you think that that’s what’s required in order to get what you want, then you’re going down the path of struggle and most likely it’ll feel like you’re beating your head against a brick wall.nnThe most important part of this is getting in touch with the enthusiasm for the things you desire and see yourself already enjoying them in your mind, that’s the “X” at it’s most powerful. If thinking about your “X” doesn’t bring up feelings of joy, then it’s not really something you desire at a deep level, it’s just something you think would be nice at some point. Don’t waste your time with this, unless what you want is in fact struggle! nnDespite what “realists” will tell you, life is supposed to be fun and joyful, so why not spend your time thinking about things that stir up this joy in you? When you feel yourself overflowing with joy, the action you take is super charged and it doesn’t feel like work to you, it simply feels like a natural progression to the next joyful moment. And remember that no matter where you find yourself (physically or emotionally) you do have the ability to reach for a thought that can give you relief if you’re not feeling so good right now.nnAlso remember that if you don't feel inspired, DO NOT ACTION. Western society is action oriented, however action taken from a place other than inspiration leads to results that reflect that lack of enthusiasm. Think of it this way, if you were creating a suit but used old, worn out material to make it, the end result, no matter how much effort you put into it, would be less than satisfactory. nnThe bottom line is that you can force yourself to do anything, if you have to. However life is about joy and natural flows and to do anything that's forced, is against our nature. Go with the flow, it's much more fun.