Thanks to Integral Options for the link. Good advice for integral practice.
For myself, sporadically keep various goals. Sometimes it is better, sometimes worse.
That's something you don't see the Steve Pavlina's of the world talk about.
For me, there are three versions of what to do - "what I must do", and "what I want to do that's rewarding", and "what I do that fun, but an empty time waster".
1."Must do", includes things like going to work, cleaning up, paying bills, etc.
2. "What I want to do" are the various integral practices that make for a fulfilling, balanced life. Exercise, meditation, volunteering, playing my guitar, learning a language, tech study, etc. Even better, expanding my career, finding the next opportunity, integraly study, etc.
3. "What I have fun doing that's an empty time waster" is things like browsing the internet for hours on end, playing a video game, reading a pedestrian sci-fi novel, etc. Watch movies, comedy shows with my sweetie.
I'm not too bad at the first category on the list. And some of the activities that would be in category 2, I do well - I meditate regularly, and I exercise regularly. But some of the other goals there, I do much less.
Now category 3? 3, I'm pretty good at. If I spent as much time on category 2, as I do on category 3, wow, I'd be an accomplished guy!!
(Internet, and the tv, as wonderful as it is, is a great tool for mental masturbation).My longterm goal is to substitute more category 2 activities, for category 3 activities. In terms of time.
And I've done a lot on this ground -
a. Visualized my motivations - daily
b. Setup umpteen schedules for activities.
c. Started a regular practice of activities - that then falls away.
d. Attempted various, and different, structures, to do more activities.
Still, 3 always ends up being what i do more of. I fall of the wagon. I get distracted (except for meditation and exercise). I go for three days, then go three days off, or a week off.
I've probably gone on a self-improvement kick - attempting to do more of category two activities more than category three activies - more than one hundred times in my life.
It's REALLY annoying to read these self-improvement guys, such as Pavlina, who basically don't acknowledge the move towards the baseline, of human nature.
Funny enough, I'm old enough now, that I don't "beat myself up" about doing less of category 2 than category 3. First off, lots of time I spend "doing nothing" is spent in a pretty incredible place, where the "I" slips away, and only Being is happening.
But it is also pretty clear that the inherited habits (my own childhood background, was lacking both in any form of wealth, or much actual examples of spending a lot of time in category 2), tend to dominate actual living, the activity of this body.
Which is a shame, really - as the information on "how best to live", is pretty much all over the internet. Working with resistance, changing those habits, moving out of baseline - as Wilber has said, what ACTUALLY causes change, in a person, what ends up actually motivating a person, despite the tens of thousands of hours of research, is still a mystery.
