Vision July 20, 2007

“Any road will take you there as long as you don’t know where you are going.” ~ Reginald Jones

RIDING THE WAVES

Like the captain of a ship, your vision determines your course. As you ride the waves, steering and maneuvering, every choice you make moves you closer to or further from your destination.

So, where are you headed?

Where will you be in six months, a year, five years? Do you know or are you waiting to see how life unfolds?

Listening to old scripts, or fueled by negative thinking and low self-esteem, many drift through life unaware of the choices they make, hoping, by luck or by fate, that everything will turn out okay.

By consciously creating a vision for your life, you challenge yourself to identify and pursue your greatest potential. You choose your destination, refusing to leave it to chance.

Begin by asking yourself, “Where do I intend to be a year from now?” Form a picture in your mind’s eye. See it, feel it, taste it, hear it.

Next, be willing to do what it takes to achieve it. This is where the work comes in, where many abandon ship. Employ your Will, your Persistence and your Resilience.

Finally, hold tight to your vision, stay on course and most importantly, enjoy the ride.

RECIPE FOR VISIONING

The following exercise was adapted from the VISIONING WORKBOOK, published by the United Church of Religious Science (2005).

Find a quiet and comfortable place to relax. Clear your mind and read each of the following questions one at a time. Allow whatever answers, words, images or thoughts that come. You may want to have a journal to write down your answers. Trust yourself, trust the process.

1. What is the highest vision for… (my life,
project, career, relationship)

2. What must I become to empower the vision?

3. What must I release?

4. What must I embrace?

5. Is there any other information that I need in this
moment?

Depending on your beliefs, you may ask these questions in the form of a prayer to a higher power or to the wisest part of yourself.

Issue 14-Strength of Will July 13, 2007

“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.”

~ Lance Armstrong

ARE YOU WILLING?

Faced with a beckoning candy jar, a looming deadline or your squawking alarm clock, what part of you wins:

Your Pleasure-Seeker or your Will?

Just as a child will always choose the Captain Crunch or a later bedtime, your Pleasure-Seeker rarely has your best interest in mind. It wants to feel good NOW, forget later.

Your Will, on the other hand, is determined to help you reach your full potential. It is your cheerleader, taskmaster, coach, and parent. Without it, you cave if things get too difficult or when something else seems more appealing.

Will requires one thing, a vision-a goal. Connecting action to purpose, it keeps you on the path to achievement, making choices that serve you long-term and saving you from the nagging feelings of guilt and regret.

Not simply denial or self-sacrifice, it requires having a very clear and specific goal and then do whatever is necessary to get there.

Strengthen your Will by turning up the volume. So, when the Pleasure-Seeker starts screaming, “I DON’T WANT TO,” the Will replies, “I hear you, but you’re not in charge.”

RECIPE FOR WILL

The development of the Will requires practice and persistence.

The first step is acknowledging that you always have a choice, that you are in charge, that you CAN help it.

The next step is to begin to consciously turn up the volume. Choose a very specific and measurable goal that requires you to exercise your Will. Notice the competing voices, among them the Procrastinator, the Pleasure-Seeker, and the Will.

Choose Will. Use Will. Hear the other voices, but follow your Will. Try it for a day. A week.

Allow your Will to be the captain of your ship.