“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” —Audre Lorde
Hello friend,
This week, I had the best homework assignment EVER! It was for my life coaching class, and as I was completing it, I became more and more captivated by it. By the end, I was so moved that I knew I MUST share it with you. It was, for me, one of those life moments when you feel like you have just been shown into the secret room that holds the keys to Happiness. The awe and appreciation I felt were so powerful that I knew I simply could not keep that room to myself. I had to invite the world in. So, this letter to you is my version of shouting my invitation from the rooftops. The secret room is about to host a party!
So, what kind of homework assignment could cause such a stir in me? The task was to write a vision statement based on a couple of short exercises. It was separated into two areas: personal lifestyle and professional life. The idea was to answer a handful of fill-in-the-blank questions in each area to accurately reflect the way I envision my ideal life. Then, after filling in the blanks, I would combine the handful of questions and write them in paragraph form for the two areas. It was amazingly simple, actually. The “personal lifestyle” area was six short questions that addressed my family commitments, recreation/fun, home environment, retirement home (an odd addition, I think), hobbies/passions, and health. The “professional life” was even shorter, with four questions addressing my areas of concentration, office environment, financial plans, and business philosophy.
As I said, the blanks were small and the questions few, so there was a wonderful simplicity to the task. But, as I have often found all over my world, in simplicity there is purity and clarity. These simple, straightforward questions about how I want my life to look caused that ideal life to stand out so clearly in my mind. Here is what I wrote:
In my personal life, I am committed to choosing happiness. I will do that by maintaining clarity regarding my values, and acting accordingly. I will keep my family front and center, nurturing and enjoying them and always making the time to be with them. I will keep my home environment comfortable and useful, housing my gym and office where I live and keeping the atmosphere warm and homey, a place for family. I will blend my recreation and hobbies/passions—exercise, tennis, yoga, meditation, reading, and writing—to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I will practice Peace and always follow my Bliss.
In my professional life, I am committed to working in areas that both stir my soul and provide a service to the people of the world. I will focus my efforts on writing, public speaking, and life coaching to tap into my varied strengths and interests while keeping service always at the fore. I will be self-employed and do much of my work from my comfortable home office. I will be financially successful by staying true to my purpose and following my intuition to share my unique voice with the world. I will do all of this with integrity and positivity, modeling self-awareness and positive thinking as vehicles of personal growth and the pursuit of one’s dreams.
That was it! Assignment done. Because I had already answered the questions with short fill-in-the-blanks, the paragraphs basically wrote themselves. It was quick and easy. But the effect on me was strong and lasting. Most of us have a rough idea of what we want—we have a dream job or a dream house somewhere in our mind—but how many of us have ever really put a sharpened edge on those dreams? How many have written them in ink? I found that there was a great power in writing them down. It was like I was finally having the guts to declare to the Universe, “THIS IS WHAT I REALLY WANT!” But it was more than that, too. Because of the “I will…” start to each statement, it was more of a command to the Universe, not a request. “THIS IS HOW THINGS ARE GOING TO BE!” Try saying that sometime and meaning it. It just feels powerful. In writing it down in such a declarative way, I was claiming authority over my life and my future in a way I never had before. That authority is beautifully liberating.
The combination of power and liberation, while lovely, does not necessarily mean that I picked the right answers to the questions. For that, I looked first to my heart and my intuition. Like so many peeks into the future—I do this whenever I try to come up with New Year’s resolutions or other goals—I tend to think more about how I want to feel first, before I ever even think about what I want to do. When I am clear about how I want to feel, it becomes much more obvious to me what I should be doing to feel that way. When I sat back after doing this exercise to see if my vision statement was true to my values, my gauge was essentially the question, “Does this vision make me feel the way I want to feel?” It did. It made me feel happy, centered, challenged, useful, optimistic, healthy, inspired, grateful, and full of Peace. I like that vision of me!
How about you? What does your ideal life look like? Get out your journal, and dream big! Ask yourself some questions. Start with your personal life. What do you want to be committed to in your family life? What do you see yourself doing for fun? How do you envision your living space—size, location, feel, etc.—both before and after retirement? What would you like your passions and interests to be? What will you do to be healthy? Then, move on to your professional world. And remember, this is your ideal world. What will the focus of your work be? What will your workspace look like? How about your financial plans: how much do you envision making per year? Finally, what is your vision for your business philosophy? The answer to these simple questions—you can add or subtract a few, of course—serve as a template for your vision statement. You can write two separate paragraphs—one personal and one professional—or blend them into one that represents the whole being that you are. Do you feel like your vision is realistic for you? How far off of it are you right now? Is there something you can do today—some new thought or new action–to close the gap? For most of us, we have been trained to rein our dreams in and play small. Because of that, this exercise—naming and claiming what you really, truly want from your life—can make you feel very self-conscious, even greedy. Do your best to keep those feelings at bay; they don’t belong to the dreamer in you. Be unbounded. Be free to think like your best self. Do you believe you can live it? I do. Leave me a reply and let me know: What is your vision for your life?
Own it,
William