The first three weeks or so of every year is spent “in the zone.” Millions of people make personal promises to lose weight, save money, get organized and more. Working from a seemingly endless list of standard “to dos,” they believe will make the year ahead better than one they stepped out of with disappointment thanks to unachieved goals and self-sabotaged dreams.
But by Valentine’s Day, the thrill is usually gone. Affirmations and regimens developed to “live your best life” have fallen by the wayside to habitual defeat.
Life Coach and InPower Institute Founder Rebeccah Bennett Kenyatta has a unique perspective for staying on path to progress and power. And she welcomes all interested parties to join the conversation next week to share and be supported in their journey towards making their resolutions a reality.
“We will talk about the relationships between the roots and the fruits,” Kenyatta said. “Our ideals are the roots and the manifestation is the fruit. We have a tendency to think that things are made on the outside, but whatever we are setting out to do must first happen on the inside.
Whatever it is that we want to make manifest in 2011- it doesn’t matter what it is – we must hold to it on the inside. We have to visualize it, feed it, pray on it and energize it with our attention and intention.”
Kenyatta believes another step in the standard operating procedure to assure our annual resolution failures is the way we go about making them.
“This one brother told me ‘I want to work on my finances’,” Kenyatta said. “What does that mean? We’re afraid of failure so we go in hedging our bets. But if we are afraid to declare with fearlessness what we want we most certainly won’t ascertain it. Do you want to ‘work on your finances,’ or do you want to be so financially secure that you pay can off your house, pay for your children’s education and eliminate all sense of scarcity in your life?”
Now that’s a resolution! And according to Kenyatta, the key to achieving goals and staying accountable to your dreams for 2011 (and all the ones that follow) is not accomplished through aiming low, but by being precise and believing big.
“Getting clarity on the inside is a magnet for attracting and creating precisely what we want on the outside,” Kenyatta said. “Approach this with a certain amount of power. We are at the beginning of the year; it hasn’t taken anything from you yet. People should declare boldly to themselves what it is they really want, energize it, pray on it everyday and feed it with good thoughts.”
Climbing from resolution to reality
2011 will be especially significant as Kenyatta offers life lessons on walking in purpose and faithfully running towards goals. When she leads the discussion next week on making dreams reality in the New Year, the venue for the conversation will serve as her prime example.
InPower Institute was the manifestation of a dream and vision Kenyatta had for herself in 2009 – after the yoga class she instructed was shifted to two different locations in a few short months.
“I thought ‘what if we had our own space?'” Kenyatta said. “From that day forward it was an idea that wouldn’t leave me alone – and it became something bigger.”
What began as a desire for a peaceful home for her class grew into the need to create a physical environment to cultivate and develop the mind, body and spirit for those who are interested in bringing their best selves to the world.
“I wanted to create a vibrant living community that supported people in being the best people that they could be,” Kenyatta said. “Every single day I woke up and went to bed thinking about it and thinking ‘how can I make this come alive?'”
She found the answer in an anthropological tour of Peru earlier last year.
“We were visiting the sacred spots of the Inca – who built many of their temples on tops of mountains,” Kenyatta said. “We had to climb the mountains to get to temples and it was revealed to me that ascendance requires exertion. In our everyday lives dreams are by nature on high – if you have the vision you have to climb up to meet it.”
Kenyatta returned ready to scale her dream. She began searching for a location. She met with agents, found a space in South City. She spent three months rehabbing and in May of 2010 InPower Institute opened its doors.
“I allowed myself to daydream about it everyday until it could nothing but pour out of me,” Kenyatta said. “Those dynamics are not unique to me. If we feed a dream on the inside with our heads and our hearts it will manifest because it has no more room on the inside.”
Because she lived her dream, she can now move forward with helping nourish the aspirations of others. People will step forward and discuss their dreams and goals for the year in a building that grew from a simple thought into a space to empower and uplift individuals, families and community.
“In our community there is no shortage of places we can go to be broken, but can you name ten spaces you can go to be supported in your wholeness,” Kenyatta asked. “Our aim was to create a space where individuals can be healthy and whole be their best self – on every level of the human experience – and to help us be whole and healthy. That’s a tall order and it requires a lot of people and a lot of programming. But what are trying to do is create a space where people who do have the programming can come together – and I think that we are doing that.”
InPower Institute will host New Year, New Beginnings and New Intentions: An Open Discussion on Wednesday, Jan. 12 at 6:30 p.m. The center is located at 5400 Nottingham. For more information on the available programming at the InPower Institute, visit www.inpowerinstitute.com.
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