Vision! Do You Have One For Your Life
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What is more important than achieving goals?
How often do you take the time to craft a vision for your life and I don't mean just dreaming?
I know a lot of people who set goals and a lot of people who dream, but I don't know many people who have a vision for their life. It's absolutely critical that you have one.
But before I get into that, you may be asking what's the difference between dreaming and having a vision or setting goals and having a vision? I used to confuse these as well.
Dreaming is a great exercise. It's when you let your mind go without limitations on what you can do and what's possible in your life. It's anything goes. Dream it up.
Feels good, doesn't it? It should. Dreaming can help you get beyond limitations and pardon the cliche, think outside the box.
Problems can be solved by dreaming, but it's usually not enough and unfortunately, there are many people who fall in love with their dreams so much so that they're unwilling to take action to turn them into reality because they're afraid the reality won't live up to the dream.
Don't be that person. It's not worth it.
Then there's goal setting. People told me "You need to be very specific and detailed when you set goals" but because I didn't understand the difference between vision and goals I messed this up.
I would often bring the values into my life that fulfilled and satisfied me but because they didn't look like the goals I set, I didn't accept them and therefore it was unfulfilling and unsatisfying.
And many times when I finally did achieve the goal, the joy was fleeting and I was back to being unsatisfied. This is a clear indication that I didn't have a vision attached to my goals.
Another way to know you don't have a vision attached to your goals is if you're not enjoying the process of working toward your goals. Recognize this as a red flag.
This doesn't mean that every moment of working toward your goals should be bliss. It does mean though that if you're not enjoying the process and you keep telling yourself that you'll be happy when you achieve the goal, dangling the carrot in front of you to try to motivate yourself, you're likely moving in the wrong direction.
And that's basically what a vision is, a direction.
If you run out of motivation when working toward a goal, it's probably a good thing. It's probably because you either weren't clear about what achieving it would do for you or achieving it wouldn't do much for you.
Or it's possible you had a conflicting intent that needed to be made conscious so you could integrate it in order to continue moving forward.
When you're setting a goal, to run a marathon, for example, ask yourself what's important about achieving that? What does it do for you?
Keep asking these questions. Go deep with it. The answers will create your vision.
Gather up the answers and actually envision them in front of you seeing yourself fulfilling them. Keep it vague and general because you don't know all that the future holds. Keeping your vision vague and general will allow you to be flexible and adaptable.
Now go back to your goal and ask yourself if that goal serves your vision. Be honest with yourself. It will save you a lot of struggle and effort from chasing a goal that isn't in alignment with your vision for your life.
When your goals align with your vision, you will be unstoppable. You'll never run out of motivation and failure will never crush you. You'll just get back up and keep moving toward your vision and you will enjoy the process along the way, not just the achievement of the goal.
Make this a lifelong practice and you will master your life.
Damon Cart
NLP Coach and Trainer
Santa Cruz, CA
Damon Cart
Author
Damon Cart is considered to be a natural talent by some of the best NLP trainers in the world. His approach to guiding and teaching students brings to their awareness that they've been doing NLP all of their lives without realizing it and he empowers them with skills and resources to thrive and reach their full potential. With the understanding of how Neuro Linguistic Programs create oneβs experience a person can then take charge of those programs and create the experience and the life they want. By taking this approach into his own rigorous, daily NLP practice Damon has been able to rapidly accelerate his progress in learning, coaching clients and teaching workshops.
