A time to reflect
Many people around the world have had their sources of income impacted in some shape or form. Small businesses have collapsed and jobs have been lost which forces people to consider a pivot from what they are used to doing and face uncertainty while challenging their comfort zone. So many of us have the time now to sit quietly, ponder, and ask ourselves, what is my vision in life?
What have I achieved to this point?
What do I need to do to improve and change?
What does that next chapter in life look like?
Two mindsets – which one shapes your reality?
There is the average person (A) who lets their life just happen to them and then there is the person (B) who lives their vision with purpose towards their ideal life.
There are people (A) who look at their circumstances or their past and they unconsciously determine their future based on this. And by circumstances I mean they look at their current knowledge or skills, money and income, the state of current events such as the job market, or even the current pandemic. This list can go on and on and the average person allows past and current circumstances to control their thinking.
Conversely, there are people (B) who achieve higher stations in life and lots of success. These are the type of people who set the vision they want for the life they want to live. Then they set the strategies and tactics for acquiring the skills, knowledge, tools, resources, and timelines they must take action by. This person paints a picture on the screen of their mind for their future and what they need to begin believing about themselves. They determine what action they need to take and who they need help from to get there.
If you happen to think like the average person in example (A), you must get downright honest with yourselves on where you are in life and take stock of your current beliefs, habits, and actions that need to change to make progress and grow.
Let us take for example that you have a vision of living a healthier lifestyle and you often think about getting into better shape, making better food choices, and reducing overall stress levels.
Getting a clear vision on the screen of your mind with clear precise goals is what will propel you towards a healthier future. Determine the knowledge and skills required to achieve the goal of living healthier and consider the discipline, resources, and tools you may need to upgrade your knowledge and skills. There are plenty of resources and people with the practical knowledge and know-how
where you can seek out advice and support. A lack of knowledge and skills required to achieve your goal will more than likely create stress, uncertainty, and reduce the motivation that will limit your action causing you to feel stuck. You must address this area to set yourself up for success.
Your habits
Consider your habits and determine whether they help you or hinder you. Your habits must be aligned with your vision to create lasting change. Getting brutally honest with yourself will cause you to identify disempowering habits that need to change and to practice forming new empowering ones to achieve your goals and live your vision.
There is no doubt that change does not come easy. Change forces you out of your comfort zone. It takes persistent determination and discipline along with the ongoing repetition of your new empowering habits. As Jim Rohn once said, “you will either pay the price of discipline or pay the price of regret”.
Success and lasting change come with discipline, and disappointment comes with regret later on in life. Disappointment just means accepting what currently is and not giving your best effort to change your thoughts, habits, and beliefs to empowering ones with regards to a new vision. It is so easy to settle for the status quo and your current comfort zone. Become aware of this and learn to master change.
Practice visualization
A popular tool used by many to take action and make progress towards a goal is a vision board. The best way to achieve results is to keep them top of mind so that you’re always looking for ways to move towards them. A vision board is a compilation of images and words that represents the goals that you set out to achieve. The images and words can represent your dreams in the form of experiences, places to visit, material possessions you want to own, and expressions of the life you see yourself living. Posting the board in an area where you spend a lot of time forces you to visualize it frequently while imagining that you are already experiencing the result. Over time the images and words get impressed into your subconscious mind and as long as you are taking ACTION, you are on your way to evoking the law of attraction.
Over time you will start to form ideas and solutions to achieve the results you desire. You will start to notice helpful resources in your environment that were always there but had not noticed in past. You will also find that you begin to attract people, resources, and opportunities that will help you accelerate your progress towards your ideal life. Develop a daily habit of visualizing your dreams and it will begin to motivate you which essentially means motive for action and soon enough you will find yourself achieving goals regularly.
Get uncomfortable and creative
In this world, nothing ever stays the same. We either live in a state of creation or we fall to pieces over time and become miserable. You have the choice to make life your masterpiece by designing your vision with new thoughts, beliefs, and habits and just watch how you evolve in time.
Feel free to share your experiences about creating lasting positive change and comment below. As always you if you need a hand on some of the posted topics, feel free to reach me directly Michael@mindbodyvibrance.com
Thank you for such a thoughtful article. I think, as you stated, that too many times we get wrapped up in our past and let it dictate our future. I have been person A way too much and although I want to be more like person B, I haven’t had to fortitude to push past what is holding me back and instead life just happens. Your article has given me additional perspective and a renewed sense of aspiration to be who I know I can be. My best self.
Thanks for sharing your comments Daniel. I’m glad you found the post useful. If I can offer any advice, it would be to set aside a few hours to deeply think about what your ideal future should be, how you can evolve to make it at reality, and most importantly, WHY. Get this vision on to paper and include visuals/pictures. Review it every morning as you start each day and over time, I promise you that you will start to live life by design, and not by default. Live well my friend!
It is all a matter of how we look at things, back in 2009 when the economy was hit with a financial crisis many people lost their jobs including a little over one thousand at my former workplace as well. A few months to a year later I read of some of these seem people who lost their jobs but they never gave up. They saw this loss of job as an opportunity to go into business which they did and they became very successful and had people working for them. They moved from the employee to the employer.
Thank for sharing your thoughts, Norman.
Hi Michael,
The Pandemic did make us reflective of what we are, what we have achieved till date vis-a-vis what we intend to achieve. Rather, it gave a chance to clarify our vision.
The Vision Board suggested by you seems to be a great tool to focus on it. Daily interaction with the Vision Board would activate our sub-consciois mind to work on it. Achieving what we intend to be then will have a clear path.
Do you suggest any particular format to create this Vision Board for maximum efficacy.
A very thoughtful article.
Thanks for sharing.
Regards,
Rohit
Hello Rohit, Thanks for the question. Any format will suffice. I have mine in a workbook format so I may flip through pages. I also have my goals, vision, purpose, and WHY written in. The key is establishing the habit of spending 10-15 minutes reviewing it every morning, and if you can, every night before retiring at night. Look through the pages and engage your emotions with your desires. This is the key to burning the ideas and goals into the subconscious. The other key is to take daily action steps towards your goal.