Have you set your personal goals and vision for 2023? When people ask “what are your goals” or “what’s your vision for your life?” does it make you want to retreat to a different conversation at the cocktail party? Thankfully there’s a way to figure out your personal vision, so that you can make daily decisions that move you closer and closer to your highest hopes and personal mission. And best of all, it will move you closer to your values and ultimately your personal joy.
When you have goals and a vision for a project, your job, or your life, then every action and decision can support it. It also helps you prioritize because you can ask yourself “does this decision move me towards or away from my goals and vision?”
Then, once you have the goals and vision, your unconscious mind will go to work for you. It will sift and sort the inputs from your world, looking for evidence to support and move you towards your vision. You will literally “see” the world differently, because you’ve fine tuned your filters.
Why does this work?
In every moment we receive over 40 billion pieces of information, but our conscious mind can only process about 40 of those items. Like tuning the channel on your TV set, you can change which 40 things make it to your conscious reality.
The trick is, left alone, our mind cannot always arrive at the goals and vision by itself, because societal conditioning teaches us not to get too big for our britches. We have an inner governor that throttles our creativity.
The way to get past the governor is the magic of asking questions. We are going to play a game with ourselves to uncover our personal truth, then tune the filter to match. So set aside a half hour, grab a notebook and pen, and give this gift to yourself.
If money, talent, time and responsibilities were not in the way, and you could create your ABSOLUTE dream scenario, what would your life look like in the following areas? Provide as much detail as possible for best results.
Start at the top of the page, and write until you feel empty about each prompt below. Describe in great detail to get the best view of what matters to you.
I live in… My family is… The first thing I do each morning is… My car is… My home is… The project I’m excited that I just completed is… My health is… The person I’m connected with is… My favorite thing to do on the weekend is… I’m traveling to… I’m finally able to… The best part of my (job, career, business) is… When I look in the mirror, I see… I no longer stress about… I would describe my relationships as… Spiritually, I am fulfilled by… Something I’ve always wanted to do is… The way I feel after doing it is…
Ideally this will fill several pages, where you’ll uncover what matters most. Now is the fun part!
Write yourself a letter in present tense, about how you feel now that all these things have happened. Talk about each of these items, from the point of view that it already happened, easily and effortlessly, and how you feel now that it’s all happened. What DOES it feel like to be aligned and in flow with your vision and goals?
Keep it near your daily meditation space, your desk, wherever you will make time to regularly read it. Our unconscious mind is unaware of time, and will think this is already true. The unconscious mind will use this insight to ferry the 40 items a second that support this vision.
I do this exercise once a year, and for both me and my clients, we’ve found over time that more and more of the vision comes true, and other parts morph as we grow. Most of all, by regularly reviewing your vision, you can think about the actions and decisions you make as either moving you TOWARDS or AWAY from your ideal.
Sometimes I do choose the treat that takes me away from my visions of health, not gonna lie. And I forgive myself and enjoy the treat guilt free. Other days I’ll make a different decision, and on all days I’m making an informed decision. I talk about the joys of eating keto but some days I go ahead and enjoy as part of being a survivor. I have a second shot at life, and joy (and spreading joy) is my highest priority.
I’d love to hear in the comments below, what was your greatest learning from doing this visioning exercise? Any surprises?
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