The Strategy: Work on your ‘self’ first. Cultivate will-power and self-control to be able to achieve your goals with less striving and failure.

“Accumulating virtues means there is nothing one cannot overcome

When there is nothing that one cannot overcome

One’s limits are unknown

The limitations being unknown, one can possess sovereignty…” Excerpt from Chapter 59

Every New Years Day in the United States, millions of people set up personal goals that are sometimes called “resolutions”. The premise seems to be; its a new year so it is a time for a new me. For many reasons, they become motivated for a change in behavior. The change in behavior has a wide range. The behavioral change can be starting something or stopping something. Sometimes, maybe anytime, we fail to achieve those goals and by springtime, we have lost the motivation.

Harmony is the foundation for good karma. The western mind can understand Karma as the law of cause and effect will manifest through your choices. Will-power of the true-self will seek harmony through moderation and right thinking. In this way, you can reach your goals and realize the success of your new year resolutions. With proper motivation, and the execution of true will power you can reach your goals. The wisdom is to work on your ‘self’ first, to achieve sovereignty, and goal success will happen without as much striving or failure.

The realization that we must change our path when it is leading us away from harmony comes from the inner nature of the true-self. We have those moments where we admit to ourselves that we need to change and resolve to do so, hence the new years’ resolutions. In those moments where we are contemplating our destiny as the true-self, we can make some choices to change our ways.

So how do we continue working towards our self-improvement goals even when we no longer feel motivated? It takes will power.

Will-power is cultivated through self-control and self-discipline. Sovereignty and will power are the mental states where we consciously choose to follow the higher path. In previous chapters, we discussed at length how to cultivate self-control and self-discipline.

Without will power, you have a much more likely chance of not succeeding in realizing those self-improvement goals. Will power is that nature that will keep you on the path even and especially when you feel like giving up.

There are those difficult moments where the choice of staying on the path is right before you. Do you maintain or do you cave in? It becomes a battle of will between true-self and ego. Which aspect will become sovereign?

How do you do this? You must transcend the ego and take over the management of your emotional life. This is done through a self-awareness and the discipline of meditation and mindfulness. This is working on the self first. With Will-power, self-control, and self-discipline you can better avoid the poor choices that lead to distraction and failure. This is sovereignty.

Sovereignty takes over management of intention from the willful ego. Ego seeks to fulfill desire. The true self seeks to implement virtue and wisdom. The path of desire has many traps to prevent you from achieving a true success. Hidden intentions or imprinted intentions can operate in the background and control how you navigate down your path. So it is important to practice meditation and mindfulness to stay strong in your calm abiding nature. Insight meditation (self-reflection) can help you uncover hidden or subconscious intentions that can erode your will-power. This is part of “self-discovery” or the sacred path set out in chapter one.

Even the intention of the goal itself should be examined. When you are self-aware, you can examine the what and why of the goal. An important question to ask is if the goal is just a means of seeking happiness and fulfillment through material gain? Is this just more “self-indulgence¹ (ego indulgence).

It is my conjecture that you should first seek to find and know your true path. That you should be living your life with your higher purpose. Your goals should be aligned with your higher purpose that is one of virtue and in the service of others. Be aware of ego goals that are vain, petty and non-spiritual. Rather than seeking fame and fortune, seek to share your true gifts with others.

When you find your true path and realize those worthy goals, then begin the hard work of cultivating the true-self.² Become the sovereign, whose will-power will accomplish worthy achievement through self-discipline and self-control. By working on the self to be in spiritual harmony, the goal you seek, the goals you achieve will be done without striving. This is accomplishing more by doing less. This is a principle of Wu Wei³. This is being Sovereign.

This is a chapter from the upcoming book “Sovereignty”. From section three; Tao Strategies.