Create Your Vision & Map Out a New Year

The law of attraction—the concept that you can manifest things in your life through the power of thought—is an important force.?

I wrote about the law of attraction in my recent?Leadership post?where I welcomed you to download a series of free resources from my “manifestation heroes”, Marci Shimoff, Dr. Sue Morter, and Lisa Garr.

Of course, we have to work hard for our rewards and not just wish for them.?

What are some steps you can take to create a vision for 2022?

BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND

Let’s take a principle (habit) from Stephen R. Covey’s?The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. His first habit is “Be Proactive” which means to take action towards the things you want in life.

But it is Habit 2, “Begin with the End in Mind” that really helps with setting a vision.?

Covey asks the reader to picture his or her own funeral. Three people stand up to say a few words about the deceased, the type of person you were, what you stood for, how you lived, and so on. One family member, one community member, and one work colleague would speak.

What would a family member about you??(Does it jive with what you’d hope they’d say?)?

What would a community member say???(Again, does it jive with what you’d hope they’d say?)

What would a colleague say??(And again, does it jive with what you’d hope they’d say?)

Start taking actions so that you can match up what each would say according to the legacy you’d like to leave.

For those of you that feel caught up in the world of accumulating money and power over connections and love, Id like to invite you to contemplate this “mantra”:

Do what you must do.

Know that you can’t take it with you.

I can also offer some advice from my 92-year-old grandma, who has passed on but was a beautiful, sage creature and a devout Polish Catholic.?

When I once asked her advice when I was considering slowing down my fast-paced consulting career in order to spend more time with my young kids at home. I was contemplating giving up a meaningful salary and rewarding experience with clients in order to work in a way that was more flexible.

In response to my question about what might be my next steps, she fingered her rosary asked me the simplest, most profound three questions.

1. What are your God-given gifts?
2. What are you passionate about?
3. What is a critical need in the world that is waiting to be met?”

I can’t answer the questions for you, but I invite you to give it a try.

My own search allowed me to birth a whole new career as the Founder of the nonprofit?Nurture.

What is your vision calling you to do in 2022??

Determine your vision and frequently revisit it: See it, feel it, taste it—know it viscerally through your mind and your heart.

Another “mantra” for your contemplation:

Listen to the words of the wise. Find your passion, they advise.

Write your vision down to give it even more clarity and power. By writing down our thoughts, or representing them as images on a vision board, we give them much greater power to attract.

Another “mantra”:

Manifest from heart and mind. Your highest calling you will find.

MAP IT OUT

I advocate setting realistic, attainable goals as you endeavor to reach your life vision.?

Setting goals is about taking a big vision and breaking it down into manageable chunks. But how do we actually do this?

I like to think about what it’s like to be a skier (who is still learning to be confident in the sport) and how they might view a huge line of moguls (bumps).??

Do you just take the whole thing in and go?

Not really.

A long “bump” run can be overwhelming for the beginner to intermediate skier. When looking down, it’s like standing above a vast sea of egg cartons, all turned upside down. They create a massive network of moguls that can throw you off at any turn. A huge line of bumps can look overwhelming and scary when taken as a whole.

The same way that a vision for what you want to accomplish in life might be overwhelming if you look at it as too large a picture.

So we map it out.?

I remember what one of my ski instructors once said.

“Set your intention. The pole plant before your turn is always important. In the moguls, it is essential. When you ski through the moguls, you are setting a series of intentions with each pole plant. And keep in mind that each intention comes quickly!”?

We went through our drill, saying the word?intention?as we planted our pole before each turn. The pole plant was a reach forward and down in the direction that we wanted to go, but it wasn’t so far ahead that we were stretching our arms. It was just far enough to get us from one turn, and one mogul, to the next.?

The pole plant became my metaphor for setting goals as I started to explore terrain off the groomed runs. I realized how important it is to take that vision and break it down into manageable steps. These steps become your goals. Thinking about the process this way, the long and steep bump run was now just a series of intentions and pole plants and, therefore, quite achievable after all. This realization was a huge turning point in my skiing, in part because moguls opened up so much new terrain for me. Moreover, in life, my realization also allowed me to see how a vision can be broken down into smaller, manageable steps. Another “mantra”:

Bump by bump, down the line, is the way to feel safe and fine.I hope that these simple steps will allow you to get started on creating your vision for 2022 and begin to map it out.?I can also advise that quieting your mind in order to allow for greater productivity and creativity is always helpful. I also suggest balancing proactivity (working hard) and receptivity (letting things flow to you).

References:

The “mantras” above are from my book, Mountain Mantras.??Click here?to get a free PDF download of the book.