"Give me six hours to chop down a tree tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."
- Abraham Lincoln
This quote by Lincoln suggests that before you take action in life, it is important to take
the time to sharpen your tools. When your axe is sharp, felling the tree is much easier.
Creating your vision is like sharpening your axe before chopping down the tree.
When you create a vision, you have sharpened your focus to see opportunities and take
actions that are most in-line with your desired future.
Look inward to find your vision
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Change your patterns - change reality
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Change your negative beliefs
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Decide what you want - and your life will begin moving in that direction
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Connect your vision to what is most important - your purpose
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Create a vision that has heart and meaning for you
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Know the purpose of your vision
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Use a visioning process
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"Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at will change."
- Dr. Wayne Dyer1
Insight is a critical component of proactively creating vision. This is because many people
function on a daily basis from "deeply ingrained assumptions," or "mental models," about how
the world operates.2 All too often, you are unaware of how these assumptions
affect your actions. These assumptions affect how you think about what is possible
when you create your visions.
To be proactive in creating your visions, you need to "turn the mirror inward, learning to
unearth your internal pictures of the world, to bring them to the surface and hold them
rigorously to scrutiny."3 Once you know what assumptions you are going by,
you can test them against reality. You can begin separating fact from fiction. You are
able to know how your "mental models" and "ingrained assumptions" are supporting or
limiting your vision.
A way to gain insight about your mental models and ingrained assumptions is to do a purpose
and vision process like the one in The Everyday Visionary Workbook. Click
here to get information about The Everyday Visionary Workbook.
Looking inward allows you to make choices about your future that are aligned with what is
meaningful and important to you. Your spirit is nurtured and strengthened by being in
touch with your values and purpose. The alignment of your vision with your values allows
you to create a course of action that will increase the probability that you will arrive
at your vision - and that destination is where you want to be.
Everything around us seems complex and difficult to influence; however, material reality
operates from deeply ingrained patterns. The future becomes the patterns that preceded it.
As human beings, you and I live our lives habitually in patterns of interaction that don't
really change over time. We have a tendency to continue to do what we have always done
in any new situation. It may appear that we are doing something different, but we are
likely doing more of the same. If we stand back and look objectively at our lives as a
whole, we may be able to see the patterns that have developed over time that have organized
into what we experience as our life.
The pattern concept doesn't discriminate between fulfilling or unfulfilling behavior. Your
life is how it is and will continue to be that way unless you significantly change your
patterns of behavior. If you repeat the same thoughts and actions, you will get the same results.
You can use this pattern concept to create a more fulfilling life. To change the future,
you need to think differently. You can begin new beneficial patterns in your life by
deciding what you consider important and by being dedicated to a vision about what that
will be like. This initial step of creating and committing to a vision will be the catalyst
for the weaving of a new fabric of reality, full of new patterns that make up the tapestry
of the life you desire.
A way to begin to think differently based upon what is most important to you is to
do a purpose and vision process like the one in The Everyday Visionary Workbook. Click
here to get information about The Everyday Visionary Workbook.
A friend told me a story about how she met her current husband. She was camping by herself
in a state park in Florida. She had been divorced for some time and had decided that she
was ready for a significant relationship in her life. She had read that she could create a
new pattern in her life by writing down what she most desired.
She committed to writing down the following statement: "I now attract a special man into my
life - a relationship for my highest good." She wrote this statement fifteen times each
day for three days. On the third day, she met David. She has been happily married to
him for nineteen years.
This is certainly a fairy tale ending story, but there is something more interesting about
this story. After my friend had such a powerful experience of creating a vision, and having
it happen, you would expect her to have done it for other things since then. However,
she admitted that she never did anything similar again because the experience was scary.
It was scary because she got what she asked for, and it turned out to be a handful. Moreover,
she had never shared the "writing it down" experience with anyone because she thought
that people would think she had a screw loose.
Her story is not unique. Most of us have had an experience of wanting something important
to happen in our lives and having it "amazingly appear." Many of us miss the connection
between the vision and the getting what we asked for. We also may think that others
will judge us as "dreamers" who are not in touch with reality.
It is important to disregard others' dismissal of you as a "dreamer" and to believe in your
power as an Everyday Visionary who can create new patterns that can lead you toward
an exciting and full life.
Creating and fulfilling your vision is influenced by your beliefs. Your beliefs form
your patterns of behavior. Your beliefs about what you are capable of doing are impacted
by your early developmental period, from birth to twenty-one years of age.
Your subconscious during this period is quite impressionable. The parents who raised
you provided an almost irrefutable source of information about who you are and what you
are capable of doing. This probably became the foundation of your beliefs.
What you hear or experience from your primary caregivers will have more weight than what
you hear from other sources, such as a brother, sister, or other adult.
Information from your parents can tell you that you are capable of creating the life
you want - or it can give you the message that you are not capable or deserving of
creating the life you want. This information is imprinted in your subconscious and
can stay with you throughout your life, even when it is not true or useful. Parents may
have tried their best to help develop your unique talents, like being an Everyday Visionary,
but they may have done just the opposite.
If the message from your parents is that you are not capable or deserving, you may choose
to not envision what you want because of fear of failure, the judgment of others, or not
being worthy of having your desire. If these issues prevent you from being an Everyday
Visionary, you may want to seek the help of a counselor or life coach.
As an adult, you can sort through these messages with the help of a counselor and let go of
the parental messages that are no longer useful to you. Getting professional help from a
counselor to address early developmental issues is not something to be ashamed of or to
avoid doing because you fear that people will think you are crazy. Counseling and therapy
are tools that you can use as an Everyday Visionary to improve your life.
Negative beliefs that you carry from childhood can limit your happiness or even be landmines
that can explode beneath you on your journey toward your vision. By creating and holding on
to a powerful vision, you can overcome negative belief patterns about what you are capable
of having or doing.
Everyone has special gifts, talents, and dreams, but you may be keeping yours hidden from
view, even from yourself. If so, you need to unlock the Everyday Visionary within yourself
and become the stuff of your own dreams.
"When we see the oak tree, we might forget that the oak once came from such a small beginning."
- J. Goldstein4
Your vision is the beginning of the life you desire as an acorn is the beginning of
a mighty oak tree.
Daily life is demanding, and it can be difficult to take the time to create a vision. On
most days, you may be in "reaction mode." Perhaps you need to get ready to leave in the
morning for work or school. The car needs repairing. The laundry needs to be done. What
are you having for dinner? And remember to stop at the grocery store! By 9:00 P.M., you
could well be so tired that you just want to relax and escape from the routine. You watch
TV or read a book. Maybe you have a glass of wine. At 10 P.M., you are off to bed.
If you are like most people, you eat, work, converse, worry, hope, plan, make love,
and shop - all with minimal thought about whether this is how you want to live.
The weekend arrives, and that can be a busy time. Chores need to be done. You may want
to do nothing! Or you may want to do fun things like ski, golf, bike, shop, putter
around the house, or maybe go out to dinner or a movie. Life itself can get in the
way of creating the life you most want.
However, once you take the time to decide what your priorities are - based on your vision - your
life will begin moving in that direction. The turning point is finding the time to
determine what you want.
This does not mean that the object of your desire will appear out of thin air. Rather,
with your vision written down and absorbed into your subconscious mind, you will have a
more focused awareness of the appearance of resources and opportunities that will assist
you in fulfilling your vision. Your most important task in this process is simply to find
the time to determine what you want. Reality then begins a natural organizing process of
bringing what you want to fruition.
"You can have anything you want - if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose."
- Abraham Lincoln
A successful vision embodies your purpose. When your life is connected to your purpose,
you are in alignment with one of the highest qualities of being human.5 Margaret
Wheatley wrote this about meaning in our lives: "But by far the most powerful force of
attraction in ... our individual lives is meaning." She goes on to say, "The call of meaning
is unlike any other, and we would do well to spend more time ... listening for the deep wells
of purpose that nourish all of us."6
When you know your purpose, you become inspired. Inspiration is a feeling that motivates you
to look for opportunities and to persevere when obstacles arise. Inspiration is a force that
comes from knowing your purpose that will give you the physical, mental, and emotional support
to stay the course toward your vision.
For example, your purpose might be to travel in a way that is physically and mentally
challenging, where you can encounter completely different cultures and environments. A
vision that pictures an ultimate desired outcome based on this purpose might be to go on a
month-long African safari a year from now.
Purpose and vision are closely linked. For some people, it is easier to imagine an ultimate
desired outcome, or a vision (a safari in Africa), and work back to find the purpose. For
others, it is easier to start with general priorities (a physically and mentally challenging
adventure travel experience) and imagine that purpose ultimately fulfilled. Whichever way
that you go about creating a vision, it is important that your visions have meaning and
purpose - and inspire you to put forth what it takes to make your vision happen.
Your vision may change because of what happens in your daily life. For this reason, it is important that you revisit your vision repeatedly to make sure it remains grounded in what has "heart" and meaning for you. That may change over time. However, this does not mean that a vision is something to be changed moment to moment. An excerpt from Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda helps to illustrate this point:
"I warn you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself and yourself alone, one question. This question is one that only a very old man asks. My benefactor told me about it once when I was young, and my blood was too vigorous for me to understand it. Now I do understand it. I will tell you what it is: Does this path have a heart?
"The trouble is nobody asks the question; and when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart, the path is ready to kill him. At that point, very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the path.
"For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. Here I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length.
"And there I travel looking, looking breathlessly." 7
Understanding "what has heart" for you, and what path you might take that has heart, can
take time. The first iteration of a vision may not be what you ultimately settle upon. It
is helpful to write down your vision or talk to a close friend about it. This starts the
process of becoming aware of your vision, eventually to the point where you can see, hear,
and even smell it. As you write your vision or talk about it, you try the vision on for size.
How well does it fit?
For example, imagine that you desire a brand new red Ferrari convertible. You have identified it
as a vision and use it as a lens to look at options. As you move toward that vision, your
apparent course of action is to work longer hours so that you can make the money to pay for
the Ferrari. This causes you stress. You wonder: This vision is impacting my free time to do
other things I enjoy. Maybe I should abandon my Ferrari vision.
When obstacles or doubts arise, it is time to revisit the core purpose behind the vision.
When you revisit the vision, you identify the underlying purpose of owning a Ferrari. What
you really want is the feeling of freedom of driving a sports car with the top down and the
wind in your hair.
You decide that a used sports car might be just the ticket to make your dream come true. By
amending the vision from buying a Ferrari to buying a used sports car convertible, you fulfill
the purpose underlying your vision and do not have to work extra hours that cause you stress
in order to pay for a new Ferrari. Knowing the purpose behind the vision gives you a greater
range of possibilities to fulfill your vision.
Your vision won't always manifest itself in the way you originally imagined. Many variables in
this process affect the outcome, and you cannot control them all. However, if you remember
your purpose and take action, what does happen will serve your fundamental purpose. You never
know quite how your vision will manifest itself!
My brother and I had a short-term vision that didn't quite happen in the way it was originally
imagined. We both love to get out on a river and fly-fish for trout. Because he is a busy
person, these outings are few and far between. Some time ago, after much wrangling with our
schedules, we found a day that worked for both of us. My vision for the day was to spend
quality time with my brother on one of our favorite rivers in Colorado.
The day finally arrived, but it was too cold to go fishing. I was very disappointed. Because
of the weather, we considered canceling our get-together. Fortunately, I remembered that
although fishing was important to me, the real purpose behind our outing was to spend quality
time with my brother.
Once I reconnected to that purpose, I became aware of other opportunities. Instead of canceling
our time together, I suggested that we think of other options for the day. We decided to
get together and play pool, take a walk outdoors, go to a Japanese restaurant and eat
sushi, and finish with going to a movie.
None of these activities were part of my original vision. However, we met the underlying
purpose of my vision, "to have quality time with my brother," and we both agreed that it was
one of our best "quality times" together.
Patricia, a friend of mine, had a vision of visiting New Zealand. This has been a vision of hers
for several years. It seemed like the time was never right for her to act on this vision.
There was always something that needed attending to first: relationship issues, parent
responsibilities, and financial concerns. Despite all of these obstacles, she continued
to believe that her life would not be fulfilled until she made an extended visit to New Zealand.
Eventually, the incongruence between her vision and how she was living became obvious.
She began to feel embarrassed when she told her friends that she was going to take this
trip and did not follow through. A voice in her head kept asking, "What about the trip?"
She was at war with herself. Should she begin the journey toward her vision or continue
to do what she was doing? She wondered if she could be happy with not following her dream.
This was an uncomfortable time for Patricia. She felt stuck because she was not making progress
on her travel vision. She didn't seem to have the right energy to move the vision forward.
She decided to identify the purpose behind the trip. To do so, she met with a trusted
friend to talk about, "Why is this trip important to me?"
From her discussions with her friend, she identified the underlying purpose behind this trip:
"To be in charge of my own life, and to trust myself to make my life the way I want it."
Going on the trip was a way for her to gain confidence in her ability to be "in charge" of
her life. Once she connected to this purpose, she had the juice to get the vision moving and
stay the course.
Not long after this revelation, Patricia not only accomplished her vision to visit New
Zealand, she traveled all the way around the world. The trip was an adventure of a
lifetime. She now feels greater confidence "to be in charge of my life and to trust that I can
live my life the way I want." That was the purpose behind her vision. Patricia's vision
also became an inspiration to other women to have the confidence to follow their dream.
Patricia was amazed and grateful to all the people who helped her on her journey. She felt
like her vision was a magnet that attracted the right person at the right time.
Understanding your purpose is important to any vision. Your vision is nurtured and strengthened
by your values and purpose.8, 9, 10, 11 The more you know about why you want a
desired future, the more possibilities become apparent that can make that future a reality.
These opportunities aid your progress toward the vision. The progress gives you the strength
to overcome the obstacles in your path. The purpose underlying your vision is an important
catalyst to fulfilling your vision.
You should set aside time at least once a year to create or reevaluate your long-term vision.
However, it is difficult to reflect upon your life when you are surrounded by what is familiar.
To create or reconnect to your vision, you will want to change your routine. This allows new
possibilities to emerge, and you may see the world differently. You can plan to revisit your
vision while on a vacation, but this is not ideal. Visioning is about your future. A vacation
tends to be about relaxation, experiencing new and different places, and enjoying living in
the moment. Instead, schedule a day for your own "vision mini-retreat" where the center of
attention will be on creating or connecting to the life you most want to live.
Creating a physical environment for visioning is important. If possible, go somewhere:
camping, the beach, or even a hotel. It doesn't matter as long as your main intent is to
review your vision. If you can't get away, you can structure a day at home with the
intent to make it a vision mini-retreat.
If you stay at home, be diligent about making it a space conducive to visioning. If you
have children, do the visioning while they are in school. Turn the phone off. Eliminate as
many distractions as possible.
It's hard to set aside the time to talk about the future. Life is busy. Most people have
some subconscious resistance to making a commitment to what they most want. It is not unusual
to fear that if you decide on one thing, you may miss something else that you wanted more.
This is one of the hardest steps in the visioning process - deciding what you want.
Focus, however, is the key to visioning. Once you decide what you want, you will be attuned
to the opportunities that arise, moment to moment, that will bring about your vision. If you
keep things vague, you are less likely to see opportunities or obstacles for what they are.
You can vision alone, but visioning with another person makes it more likely that you will
follow through. Also, visioning with someone requires a real commitment to time and place.
You can vision with a spouse, significant other, or a friend. Doing it with someone provides
encouragement and accountability for the process. Each person helps the other keep on track
when they get distracted, lose interest, or feel obstacles too keenly.
Create a format for your vision mini-retreat. I recommend that you use the Everyday Visionary
Workbook to guide you through the process. Information about how to get the workbook is in
the back of the book
Go To...
Develop a schedule for your vision retreat to keep you on track
when distractions arise. You can count on distractions because visioning is difficult.
Your unconscious will be on the lookout for opportunities to do something else. Stay the
course to create or connect to your vision. You are a visionary - you just need to bring it to
consciousness.
The following is an example of a vision mini-retreat. You should plan on taking three to five
hours to go through this process.
Begin the mini-retreat by doing something that is centering, inspirational, or energizing. To center yourself, sit quietly with your eyes closed and pay attention to the thoughts that arise. Or you can think, "What is most important to me now and in the future?" Other helpful activities prior to visioning are taking a walk, listening to music, and reading something inspirational.
Start by clarifying your purpose in life. Your purpose is formed from the values and actions that are important to you. Your purpose represents the reasons you get up each morning, what you hope to accomplish in life, and for what you would take significant risks. One way to discover your purpose is to think about what people will say - or what you would like them to say - about you at your funeral.
Examples of purpose are:
To be the best parent possible to my children
To help people who are sick
To be compassionate to others
To help others resolve conflict peacefully
To find a cure for cancer
To be a good steward of the environment
To provide a service or product that improves peoples' lives
If you need help to determine your purpose, you can refer to the "Identify Your Purpose" worksheet in the Everyday Visionary Workbook Go To...
The next step in the visioning process is to choose a word that describes an important area of your life and write it at the top of a 4"x6" note card. This is a brainstorming process, so don't limit yourself. Some examples of life areas are: career, creativity, relationships, family, finances, education, travel, health, recreation, and service to others. Lay the cards on a table or tape them on the wall in front of you.
Start with the areas that are most important. On each card, write a realistic, credible, attractive statement about what is most important to you in that area or how you want your life to be in that area of your life. State your desires in positive statements. What will you be thinking, feeling, and doing? For example, on the "Travel" card, you might write: One year from today, I will take a three-week trip to the Baltic states of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway.
After arriving at statements that describe the ideal picture of how you want your life to be, think about each statement individually. Verify that your outcome is what you truly want. How will the outcome affect you, your family, and others long-term?
Share your visions with your partner so that you can hear your vision out loud and get feedback. This begins the process of putting your vision out into the world so that opportunities can arrive!
You may have created many vision statements during this process. You can decide to focus on
one, several, or all of the statements.
When you bring your vision to mind, think, "This or something better will happen." This widens
your view of opportunities that will help you get what you desire.
Include time in your life to refer to your vision statements regularly. Having a daily routine of connecting to your visions is best. You should do long-term visioning at least once a year.
As an Everyday Visionary, you must make the time to focus on your vision. This is a
key component of being an Everyday Visionary. Once you have a clear vision that represents
your purpose, you have a lens to see what is available around you to make that happen.
Notes
1. W. Dyer, The Power of Intention: Learning to co-create your world your way (Carlsbad, CA: Hay House Inc. 2004).
2. P. Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization (New York: Doubleday Dell, 1990).
3. Senge, The Fifth Discipline, 9.
4. J. Goldstein, One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism (San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishing, 2002).
5. A. H. Maslow, Motivation and Personality, 2nd. ed. (New York: Harper & Row, 1970).
6. M. Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World, 2nd ed. (San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 1999), 132-133.
7. C. Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan (New York: Pocketbooks a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1972). This is one of the best books in the Castaneda series on the incredible journeys of the Yaqui Indian sorcerer Don Juan.
8. A. Thio, Sociology: An Introduction, 3rd ed. (New York: HarperCollins, 1992).
9. S. Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989).
10. B. Nanus, Visionary Leadership (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publications, 1992).
11. Senge, The Fifth Discipline.
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