Picture Your Vision
Vision – It reaches beyond the thing that is, into the conception of what can be. Imagination gives you the picture. Vision gives you the impulse to make the picture your own. ~ Robert Collier
“The conception of what can be” is such an inspiring, freeing thought. We each have the freedom to conceive of what might be for ourselves – the possibilities are endless! To create a vision of your life as you want it to be must be the first step to creating that life. Whether you are envisioning a bigger bank account, a higher net worth, more income, or debt-freedom, the vision is the destination. Without the vision, you are just waiting to see what happens!
I was in a workshop yesterday (thanks Diana Murphy and Wendy Watkins!) where we wrote a letter to our best friend dated a year from now. The letter was one of those that had prompts supplied by Wendy, and we filled in the details, the vision of what we would be talking about a year from now. It was so fun! There was absolutely no time or room for explaining “how;” we only discussed the vision. Wendy referenced the famous Stephen Covey habit, “begin with the end in mind” which is another way of saying, “create a vision.”
The beauty and fun of this exercise was that we were freed from the skeptic (“that could never happen”), the pragmatist (“how in the world will you ever make that much money?”) and the dream-basher (“who do you think you are?”). Those 3 rascals can occupy a lot of my mental space if I allow them to. Add in the critic, the doubting Thomas (or Tana as the case may be), and the worry wart and you have a recipe for curling up in bed with the covers over your head! Frequently, we let all of those other voices chime in. Party crashers!
When you are thinking about the vision, “the conception of what can be,” you leave all those sad sacks behind. Drown them out with the clarity, emotion, and detail of what you clearly picture as your heart’s desire. Put yourself a year into the future where you have become the person that you admire, where you have achieved the lofty goals that you have set, and where you are living the life that you most desire.
So, to borrow from Wendy, here is my version of the letter for you to complete:
Date February ____, 2018
Dear ______________,
You will not believe the year I have had! It was the most amazing, incredible year ever. And when I think about how my financial situation has changed, I have goose bumps! Last year, I earned ______________ and my savings increased by ________________. Besides that, I reduced my debt by _______________! I know it seems odd to talk about my money so openly but I know that you will understand how amazing and exciting this is for me. I also finally ________________________________________________ which is such a weight off my mind to complete that I feel light as a feather now. The best thing that I did for myself financially was _______________________________ and I am so glad that I did because now __________________________________________________.
I hope that you too had an amazing year, but if you didn’t, take time right now to create your own vision of what next year will be like for you.
Happily,
[your name]
I invite you to expand your letter to include relationships, health, spirituality, career, and personal growth (sounds a lot like what WOYN is all about!). Put it all in there – create such a beautiful, exciting, compelling vision that you jump out of bed every day to start running toward that vision. And when any of those other voices start to squawk, politely thank them for their concern, and drown them out with more details about your vision.
Give yourself the gift of exploring all of your possibilities, dreams, goals, and deepest desires. You don’t have to know how you get from here to there. You just have to visualize what “there” looks like. Go. Start creating the vision.
To your financial success (and vision),
Tana
