Base Your Vision on Your Highest Self
Base your vision statement on your highest sense of self, your grandest vision for your life, your most outrageous contribution. In fact, you might want to envision something even better than what you consider to be the best possible outcome. Remember that the purpose of the vision statement is to inspire, energize, motivate, and stimulate your creativity, not to serve as a measuring stick for success; that is the job of your goals and action plans.
I once heard of a training seminar where one of the exercises was to come up with as many ideas as possible for earning ten dollars by the end of the day. This was supposedly an exercise in brainstorming. After a few minutes, the instructor polled the audience for some of their ideas. Some ideas were better than others, but everyone agreed that even the bad ones could have earned someone ten dollars in a day.
The instructor then asked if any of the ideas presented so far could earn someone a million dollars. The consensus was that the vast majority of ideas had absolutely no chance to make anyone a million dollars, and a select few had only a very slim chance. At the end of the exercise, the instructor simply said, “You don’t get million dollar ideas from a ten dollar vision.”
In other words, the quality of your vision determines the creativity, quality and originality of your ideas and solutions. A powerful vision statement should stretch expectations and aspirations helping you jump out of your comfort zone.
Some people question creating a vision that may feel idealistic or unreasonable. It requires a great deal of confidence and faith, to be able to create a vision that you do not see exactly how it will manifest. But it is also something that can make an exciting challenge filled with hope and possibility. It all depends on your relationship to “failure.” Creating a life worth living requires a great deal of failure. Let failures be your stepping stones into an even greater future and you’ll create a “million dollar vision.”
"I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot... and missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why... I succeed." ~ Michael Jordan
Remember that the purpose of the vision statement is not to serve as a target that you are going to measure against to determine if you have succeeded or failed. You should use your goals and objectives to do that. Instead, the purpose of the vision statement is to open your eyes to what is possible.
Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more powerful than knowledge.” I believe this is true because while knowledge allows you to see things as they are, imagination allows you to see things as they could be.
When we become aware of what is possible, we begin to realize that dreams can be achieved, and we not only can, but must create the life we envision. In doing so we open up a completely new set of avenues and possibilities, which by itself is a tremendous source of passion and energy.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Create an Empowering Life Vision, Part 1
This is the first of three installments I will be posting over the next few days regarding how to create a powerful and compelling vision for one's life. Let me know your thoughs....
One's life vision serves as an emotional, mental and visual motivator for your life. Your vision should be an outgrowth and extension of your mission, which is based on your values. Here are some guidelines for writing a compelling and powerful vision statement.
Include All Areas of Your Life
One's vision should incorporate every area of life, creating a balanced, full and vital experience. Areas to consider including are: Health and Well Being, Career, Financial, Fun and Adventure, Education and Skill Building, Personal Growth, Spirituality, Giving and Contribution, Romance and Intimacy, Relationships, Family, Community. In each of these areas, you want to focus on what you want to give as much as what you want to receive, earn, experience and develop.
Express Everything You Can Imagine
One's personal vision is much larger, longer and comprehensive than one's mission statement. The purpose of a vision is to create a detailed picture of how you want your life to look and feel. One's vision serves to energize, inspire and create the outer framework for one's goals and action plans. Take as much space as you need to accomplish this goal. It may take you several days, or even weeks to fully capture the essence of the vision for the next five years.
Create a vision for the next five years. Five years is a long time, 1,825 days to be exact. Yet this is a manageable time frame for your mind to hold. One year visions are often too short of a time frame to build momentum and develop greater goals, and beyond five years often feel too abstract and remote to engender vital emotion that is an important element to your vision. The vision can be written in prose, or simple bullet points of detailed items in each category, so long as what you are writing captures what you want to focus on over this next phase of your life.
One's life vision serves as an emotional, mental and visual motivator for your life. Your vision should be an outgrowth and extension of your mission, which is based on your values. Here are some guidelines for writing a compelling and powerful vision statement.
Include All Areas of Your Life
One's vision should incorporate every area of life, creating a balanced, full and vital experience. Areas to consider including are: Health and Well Being, Career, Financial, Fun and Adventure, Education and Skill Building, Personal Growth, Spirituality, Giving and Contribution, Romance and Intimacy, Relationships, Family, Community. In each of these areas, you want to focus on what you want to give as much as what you want to receive, earn, experience and develop.
Express Everything You Can Imagine
One's personal vision is much larger, longer and comprehensive than one's mission statement. The purpose of a vision is to create a detailed picture of how you want your life to look and feel. One's vision serves to energize, inspire and create the outer framework for one's goals and action plans. Take as much space as you need to accomplish this goal. It may take you several days, or even weeks to fully capture the essence of the vision for the next five years.
Create a vision for the next five years. Five years is a long time, 1,825 days to be exact. Yet this is a manageable time frame for your mind to hold. One year visions are often too short of a time frame to build momentum and develop greater goals, and beyond five years often feel too abstract and remote to engender vital emotion that is an important element to your vision. The vision can be written in prose, or simple bullet points of detailed items in each category, so long as what you are writing captures what you want to focus on over this next phase of your life.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Serving God Rather Than Your Ego
What would life look like if you took on living the spiritual principle of serving God rather than your ego? What if you made every decision, of every day with the conscious intention to serve God or to serve Life, instead of the yammering demands of your ego? What would your life look like? Would you have the same job? Would you live in the same location, would you eat the same things, have the same friends? How would you spend your time if you were serving Life or God instead of your ego? Maybe it would look exactly the same as it looks right now, I don't know, but my guess is your life would look at least somewhat or even radically different. That's what I find most often when I start coaching with someone who comes to me with a sense that there should be something more to life beyond “success” and achievement. I believe that that “something more” is living ones life in service to God or the greater good. Maybe this alone is the one tenant that would make your life a living prayer. I commit to serving God in everything and I trust that God will make the way known and clear to me at every moment, with no exception. It's a powerful place to live life from, isn't it? I commit my life to the service of God rather than my ego. Maybe that's what it truly means to be “born again.”
The Consciousness of Peace
There are two different kinds of peace that one can experience:
Psychological sense – meaning relaxation, rest, quiet, a break from the busy and chaotic lives we lead.
Spiritual sense – meaning transcendence, oneness with God, and all-knowing experience that all is well.
There is a way of cultivating your life so that you experience both of these. Living in the state of peace represents a very high level of consciousness. Consciousness researcher Dr. David Hawkins from Sedona, AZ developed a consciousness scale based on his research. It is a scale that goes from 0 to 1000 and has 17 different levels ascribed numeric value to help us understand the growth of consciousness. His consciousness research has shown that the state of peace transcends even the states of love and joy, giving rise to a blissful knowing that all is one and all is perfect in whatever it's current condition or form. A rosebud is a perfect rosebud, not an imperfect rose. A book half conceived or written is not an imperfect book, it is a perfect conception and beginning. Everything in life is seen for it's present moment perfection.
What does this tell you about the spiritual state of peace? It gives rise to the blissful knowing that all is perfect in whatever its current condition or form.
This reminds me of a day I spent traveling many years ago. It was a winter trip to Florida from Boston, which can always be a bit unpredictable due to New England weather. The whole trip ended up taking 18 hours to finally land in Tampa. I don't remember many of the details. What I do remember, though, was the presence of an older nun who was also making the journey. As you can imagine, travelers were anxious, disgruntled, restless and stressed. I noticed this older nun sitting across the waiting area from me, her face placid, her eyes serene. We finally left Boston, only to arrive in NY with another set of delays. The old nun however, sat peacefully across the way, never looking the least bit concerned or uncomfortable, despite the long day we were all facing. Finally I couldn't stand it any longer, so I went and sat next to her and started to chat. I said you look so calm, so peaceful and honestly not even tired after this long day. What is it that has you display such equanimity in these circumstances? She smiled sweetly and said something I'll never forget. She said, “Why would I fret over this? I am exactly where I am, and where I am is always the right and perfect place for me to be. There's no where to go. I'm just happy to be right here now.”
How many things do we have in our lives that we don't relate to this way? Circumstances and people that we think should be some other way. What is causing our inner disharmony? Life, or our own level of consciousness, the way we think and view the world?
As a coach, one of my coaching mantras is “Love people the way they are, cuz they're going to be that way anyway!” This is a statement of acceptance, which ultimately leads to the state of peace.
Taming the ego, surrendering what is happening to God, are incredible statements of faith and actions that lead to peace. I believe that Philippians Chapter 4 is one of the best treaties on how to live in peace that I've ever read. It teaches that we can learn to live a peaceful, transcendent spiritual life through the development and implementation of four faculties:
Joy
Affirmative Prayer
Focusing our minds on higher things
Contentment
4:4-7 Rejoice in the Lord always. Let your gentleness be known to all. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
I love this. It teaches us affirmative prayer. Here's the steps:
Bring joy to your prayer
Do not worry about anything
Pray to God – which means to have a conversation with God, share your thoughts and concerns and then,make your requests known to God, that's what supplication is.
And do so with thanksgiving. That's what Charles Fillmore taught about affirmative prayer – give thanks in advance for the fulfillment of your needs.
What stands between the peace of God and our daily experience? Our minds... so in this next section, verses 8 and 9, Paul is teaching us how to cultivate a peaceful mind.
8-9: Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think on these things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice, and the God of peace will be with you.
How many of us use our mental capacities thinking about what is pure, excellent, admirable or praiseworthy? Don't we most often find ourselves ruminating about what's NOT working in our lives. That, to me, seems like a manifesto on how to create inner turmoil!
And this last section by Paul, who wrote this while he was in prison, teaches us that we can develop the capacity for inner peace, or as Paul states here, contentment, which is closely aligned with peace. He writes, "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether in plenty or in want. I can do all things through he who strengthens me."
I invite you today to cultivate a consciousness of peace. Following the example set by Paul, learning to be content in whatever circumstances, finding joy in what you have rather than misery in what you do not. These are the keys to transcendence, and to the consciousness of peace. God bless you.
Psychological sense – meaning relaxation, rest, quiet, a break from the busy and chaotic lives we lead.
Spiritual sense – meaning transcendence, oneness with God, and all-knowing experience that all is well.
There is a way of cultivating your life so that you experience both of these. Living in the state of peace represents a very high level of consciousness. Consciousness researcher Dr. David Hawkins from Sedona, AZ developed a consciousness scale based on his research. It is a scale that goes from 0 to 1000 and has 17 different levels ascribed numeric value to help us understand the growth of consciousness. His consciousness research has shown that the state of peace transcends even the states of love and joy, giving rise to a blissful knowing that all is one and all is perfect in whatever it's current condition or form. A rosebud is a perfect rosebud, not an imperfect rose. A book half conceived or written is not an imperfect book, it is a perfect conception and beginning. Everything in life is seen for it's present moment perfection.
What does this tell you about the spiritual state of peace? It gives rise to the blissful knowing that all is perfect in whatever its current condition or form.
This reminds me of a day I spent traveling many years ago. It was a winter trip to Florida from Boston, which can always be a bit unpredictable due to New England weather. The whole trip ended up taking 18 hours to finally land in Tampa. I don't remember many of the details. What I do remember, though, was the presence of an older nun who was also making the journey. As you can imagine, travelers were anxious, disgruntled, restless and stressed. I noticed this older nun sitting across the waiting area from me, her face placid, her eyes serene. We finally left Boston, only to arrive in NY with another set of delays. The old nun however, sat peacefully across the way, never looking the least bit concerned or uncomfortable, despite the long day we were all facing. Finally I couldn't stand it any longer, so I went and sat next to her and started to chat. I said you look so calm, so peaceful and honestly not even tired after this long day. What is it that has you display such equanimity in these circumstances? She smiled sweetly and said something I'll never forget. She said, “Why would I fret over this? I am exactly where I am, and where I am is always the right and perfect place for me to be. There's no where to go. I'm just happy to be right here now.”
How many things do we have in our lives that we don't relate to this way? Circumstances and people that we think should be some other way. What is causing our inner disharmony? Life, or our own level of consciousness, the way we think and view the world?
As a coach, one of my coaching mantras is “Love people the way they are, cuz they're going to be that way anyway!” This is a statement of acceptance, which ultimately leads to the state of peace.
Taming the ego, surrendering what is happening to God, are incredible statements of faith and actions that lead to peace. I believe that Philippians Chapter 4 is one of the best treaties on how to live in peace that I've ever read. It teaches that we can learn to live a peaceful, transcendent spiritual life through the development and implementation of four faculties:
Joy
Affirmative Prayer
Focusing our minds on higher things
Contentment
4:4-7 Rejoice in the Lord always. Let your gentleness be known to all. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
I love this. It teaches us affirmative prayer. Here's the steps:
Bring joy to your prayer
Do not worry about anything
Pray to God – which means to have a conversation with God, share your thoughts and concerns and then,make your requests known to God, that's what supplication is.
And do so with thanksgiving. That's what Charles Fillmore taught about affirmative prayer – give thanks in advance for the fulfillment of your needs.
What stands between the peace of God and our daily experience? Our minds... so in this next section, verses 8 and 9, Paul is teaching us how to cultivate a peaceful mind.
8-9: Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think on these things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice, and the God of peace will be with you.
How many of us use our mental capacities thinking about what is pure, excellent, admirable or praiseworthy? Don't we most often find ourselves ruminating about what's NOT working in our lives. That, to me, seems like a manifesto on how to create inner turmoil!
And this last section by Paul, who wrote this while he was in prison, teaches us that we can develop the capacity for inner peace, or as Paul states here, contentment, which is closely aligned with peace. He writes, "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether in plenty or in want. I can do all things through he who strengthens me."
I invite you today to cultivate a consciousness of peace. Following the example set by Paul, learning to be content in whatever circumstances, finding joy in what you have rather than misery in what you do not. These are the keys to transcendence, and to the consciousness of peace. God bless you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)