When Vision and Reality Won’t Cooperate

You got into private practice with dreams of what it would mean for you personally and professionally. 

Talking about your vision, gives you a road map to making decisions in your life and business. If you one day want to be in private practice solely or have a family that travels, you are going to make decisions today that will get you closer to those dreams.

In our bootcamp, we have bootcampers go through this exercise. In fact, we have a webinar on it every year. It is a powerful exercise.  And every year we get asked –

What do I do if I can’t have what I want?

You know…in your perfect day you wake up at 7am, have tea and read a chapter in your book or meditate. In your current reality you have a 4 year old that wakes up at 5am no matter what time you have put her to bed who wants to play princesses and is hungry for waffles. (Not that I am speaking from experience on this or anything )

Or you have in mind where you are working less and have a few clients, passive income and you get to travel to speaking engagements. How is that going to happen when you partner just lost their job, the kids are in college and you don’t know how you are going pay for the recent medical bill.

Reality can make you want to throw up your hands and stop dreaming because who has the time or energy!

When you start planning your business, there are big dreams and visions attached.  We encourage this in our clients, as therapists. We ask them to give voice to what they really want and need in their lives. We give them permission to create a bold and beautiful life on their terms. So why not do the same for you?

Your perfect day is a metaphor that is open to a myriad of creative interpretations.

Pay attention to the feelings that come along side that vision. If I am waking up at 7am – I feel rested. So that is one of my goals – find ways to rest in the midst of my busy day. It may not mean waking up when I want, but it may mean taking a break and closing my eyes for a little bit.

If I am traveling and have passive income, it means I have freedom. What can I do today to get closer to that freedom? Maybe I should take a day trip or get help with my finances so I reduce my overwhelm.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will your vision come to fruition with the wave of a magic wand. But you can take small steps to start getting closer to that vision.

Let’s talk about how to break down the vision into reality – so that the two stop butting heads.

1. Write down the vision – what does a perfect work day look like for you?

2. Set goals for this year that will get you closer to this vision. Using our earlier example of being under financial stress, a goal might be to a debt reduction plan.

3. Set up a project to be completed in the next 3 months that will contribute to you reaching your goal. It might be to meet with a financial planner. Or develop a system to analyze your finances.

4. Create weekly tasks to help you get closer to project completion. This week, you might research people who can help you, or download your finances into an easy to use software program like Mint.

Your tasks contribute to the big vision. You can slowly chip away the stuff that is keeping you from having that vision become a reality. And guess what, as you get these things accomplished, your vision will shift and grow.

What is one thing you can do today to step into your perfect day vision?

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