Vanilla vs Chocoate with Sprinkles

The goal setting process for the Rooster year was a painful process for me.  I struggled to come up with a list of goals in October.  Nothing.  I requested a meeting with Sifu Brinker in November.  Left that meeting feeling less stuck.  Sat through 2 more IHC meetings and still struggled to put anything down on paper.

The question really is, why was this such a struggle?  The main goal of the IHC program is mastery of our lives.  Have I mastered life?  Not by a long shot!  Have a really mastered anything?  Outside of maybe procrastination - no, nothing has been truly mastered.  So if the goal of the program is mastery and I have not mastered anything, logic would say that I really should have no issues coming up with a list of goals. 

I used that logic and thought about what I need change in order to nail the life I currently have.  The list could go on forever and ever.  There is not a part of my life that does not need the attention that mastery brings - from my relationships, to health, our home, my work and that does not even include kung fu in specific.  The list is endless.

So why was it so hard to set goals?  I guess what it comes down to is that all of the items on my list felt very "vanilla" and I wanted to write down something that was "chocolate with sprinkles".  I wanted to set a goal that screamed amazing.  I have watched others have these amazing experiences.  I have watched two teams go to Alabama, friends and acquaintances go on missions trips, friends move their family to the other side of the globe, many fellow students grade for black belt.  Then I looked at my list - declutter my house.  Yup, definitely "vanilla"....

Then I realized that I was playing a very dangerous game.  The comparison game.  I needed to look at my own life and the season that I am in.  I needed to not only accept that but embrace it.  This is not the time for me to have a "chocolate with sprinkles" kind of goal.  This is the time for me to focus on just being a better me each and every day.  This comes in the small changes, in the incremental progress, in the "vanilla".  The Year of the Rooster I will embrace the small "vanilla" steps with the mindset that it will prepare me to be able to jump on a "chocolate with sprinkles" experience when my opportunity knocks.