Posts tagged envisioning
Planning for Success Part Four
Feb 7th
Death twitches my ear. “Live,” he says, “I am coming.” ~Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro), Minor Poems, Copa
Greetings! How have you been since my last entry? Hopefully great! Last time we looked at my list of 20 reasons why I was going to do what it takes to get back into great shape in 2009. I also talked briefly about towards motivation and away from motivation. For many goals, for many of my clients, I will have them only look at towards (positive) motivations. I do this for good reason, negative motivators are by nature stress inducing and one thing most of my clients tend to already have enough of is stress. When you focus just on moving away from something, then you will feel stress.
Is negative motivation always bad then? No. Negative motivation is often, even commonly, more powerful than positive motivation. Given that, when you really need to get something done, and especially if you have tried to make a change in the past and it did not happen, then it becomes a good idea to use negative and positive motivation.
For me, I have been trying to get back into shape since I became a non-smoker. I have gotten most of the way there and gotten out of shape again. I have lost weight again and again only to gain it back. I have lost, conservatively, 500 pounds in the past 12 years and yet here I am, still virtually the same weight. I could be depressed about this; I could even give up, but I am not going to. This time things will be very different and you will see why as this series of articles progresses and the year goes on!
My Vision for Optimal Health
(Here is the first draft of my personal vision that I will use to help me get back in shape. It is a work in progress, I will update it whenever I find a way to make it feel even better, work even better, motivate me even more fully.)
I wake up in the morning feeling great – feeling completely rested and energized. More >
Planning for Success Part Two
Feb 4th
“To the person who does not know where he wants to go there is no favorable wind.” ~Seneca
Vision. This entry will talk about the process of creating a vision; creating a vision as part of the process of making a plan to achieve a specific goal. I know that I just finished an entire nine part series about creating a vision and I shared that information on this blog. Still, this will come after “vision” from a slightly different angle and it is information well worth having.
Before we talk about vision again, I’m going to share a bit of backstory. Some of you know that I am a certified NLP Practitioner. Some of you even know what that means – at least in the field of self-improvement and self-development. For all of you though, and for me, I am going to start sharing some of my NLP history and experiences in this blog. NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) is such a powerful set of skills and learnings and it is a key set of techniques that I continually call upon to help my clients and myself. How did I get involved in NLP and what does that have to do with “vision?’ Still more backstory is needed for that.
Backstory
So now, I am stepping into the “Wayback Machine.” (Quick, anyone remember where that phrase comes from?) In 1984, I was hired by a small start-up in Southern California, my first job after college. I was hired as an accountant and what a wild and great experience I had there. The two founders of this company, George Handgis and Bob McNulty, had a vision of creating the largest Home Improvement Centers chain in the USA. Armed with drive, seemingly unshakeable self-confidence, and not much money, they very nearly made it. More >
Your Vision of the Future Part Eight
Jan 29th
“A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him or her.” ~David Brinkley
Did you get a chance to read through my personal vision for this next year? If not, take a few minutes and read it over; you will find it as part of yesterday’s entry. I want to point out a few of the special features of my vision statement for the coming year that you might consider incorporating into yours.
- Everything in my vision assumes that I have already been successful. I mentally want to be in the place where I expect to succeed. Sure, something could happen that prevents me from achieving one or more of my goals, but every day, as I read my vision, I am going to put myself in the mental frame of mind that I succeeded – that I found a way and made it happen.
- I talk in my vision about how it feels when I have made my goal into my reality. I talk about how great it feels to have achieved this. I am creating an anchor of feeling great that I am attaching to thinking about each of my goals and to taking action on each of my goals. More >
Your Vision of the Future Part Seven
Jan 28th
“Vision is the art of seeing the invisible.” ~Jonathan Swift
I thought I would share my personal vision today for the next twelve months. Seeing my example, built from my top five goals might be useful.
Here again are my top five goals for the next twelve months:
- Health: I will return to my optimal bodyweight before the end of 2009.
- Family: My wife and I will take our family to New York for a great vacation to celebrate my elder daughter’s completion of her graduate program.
- Business: I will blog 5 days per week – every week of 2009.
- Finances: I will earn more in 2009 than I ever have before – at least 25% more.
- Fun: I will run in the USA’s largest cross-country race: The Living History Farms Seven Miler.
Here is the vision that I built from those goals:
It is the morning of December 31st and I have had a marvelous year. I feel More >
Your Vision of the Future Part Six
Jan 27th
vision: noun – the ability to see or a vivid mental image produced by the imagination or great perception of future developments
So, how did it go creating your vision of the future based on your top five goals for the next twelve months? Do you get excited when you read your vision? Does it feel great when you imagine yourself in the vision – in the time when these five goals are now your reality? If it doesn’t then go rewrite your vision until you absolutely love how it sounds and feels and you can’t wait to make it happen.
Now, here is your first assignment with your vision – tape record it on to a small portable recorder. If you don’t have a small digital recorder, then go get one. They are a marvelous tool for personal development. Once you have your vision tape recorded then I want you to start to listen to it at least twice per day. Listen to it first thing in the morning. Listen to it just before you go to bed a night. Each time that you listen to your vision, make it even more real for yourself – really be there. You will almost certainly find that you can enhance your vision quite a bit a first; you will be able to add details that make it even more compelling. This is a very good thing. A compelling vision makes it easy to take the necessary action to make that vision become real.
In the next entry, I will talk a bit about using your newly created vision to stay motivated and on track for achieving your goals. Later in this series I will talk about creating visions with business partners and also problems that I commonly see with visions. I also want to give you a sample of my vision – my vision for the next twelve months and my vision for the next ten years.
Till next time…Jack
“I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship.” ~Louisa May Alcott