VISIONING PROCESS
Handful of index cards, if not, a little notepad will work or free-flow at your computer. Index cards are nice because they’re fun to handle afterwards and flip through and put them in order.
Exercise comes from Falling Awake. Premise is to design the ideal life. Sometimes people are hesitant to that because maybe they’re not great at envisioning what they want and sometimes that just doesn’t come. And yet Ellis makes the case that putting those things you want FIRST really gives you the carrot, the motivation, the drive, the desire, the enthusiasm to be able to go after things. And so you oftentimes will find that after you write down the things you want, and they get tweaked as time goes on, but there’s something cathartic and something new and wonderful that’s created by writing down these things we want out of life.
I would like to ask the question, when is the last time that you actually wept out of joy for the work that you are doing?
I think all of us are wired to have those moment where we are just in awe and we say, “I can’t believe I get to do what I get to do for a living!”
As a preface to the exercise with your index cards. I would like you to start writing down some of these ideas that would make you just cry for joy, that would bring tears to your eyes, joy to your heart, and say I cannot believe I get to do what I get to do.
As we approach this, it’s important to put away all the “yes buts” – the “I don’t have enough time, enough money, too old, enough skill … The “I don’t have enoughs” or I should be spending more time doing this or that, the shoulds, oughts, and have to’s. It may be that some of these things may not come true, but there’s something special about getting them down on paper and writing out what it is that you want out of life before you have to leave this earth. And it’s not all about what you want to accumulate, it may be about what you want to do, about how you want to be and how you want to be, how you want to be known, it may be what you want to accumulate as a result of your work. These are things that are tied to who you are and why you’re here, and the footprint you’re going to leave behind because you’ve walked on this earth.
So everybody have the index cards or something to write on? Anybody not ready? What I’d like you to do is write just one item per card and write in the middle of the card so that you’ve got room to add additional information in the corners later.
I know for some it might be distracting if I’m speaking, so I”ll try and speak softly and interject a comment here and there. I”d like you to start writing. One thought per card, an I invite you to write things you’ve perhaps have never written … project you want to do, books that you want to write, the type of people you want to coach, the dreams that have been long packed away, or dreams that are just starting to emerge and the possibility of what could be is out there.
There’s absolutely no limit to the money that you have, to the resources that are at your fingertips, to the people who could help you. Your goal may be something that’s going to have an impact for 5,000 years to come and is not limited by how many more years you might be working or on this planet. It could be something as simple as having gourmet meals cooked for your dinners every day. It could be something as fabulous as inventing something that is going to impact 10 million people in terms of their career abundance and career success.
No one will judge you or make judgments about you and the items that you’re writing down. No one will say, “Who does he think he is” or “who does she think she is” to do that.
Keep writing an item for each card.
You have no worries about how you’ll accomplish these things. Focus on the “what” right now, and the “who” right now. These may be accomplished a year from now, 10 years from now, or even 100 years from now.
These are things that would make your heart sing.
Take about 30 more seconds to finish writing ideas on your cards. You can always come back later and write some more ideas on your cards.
Okay, everyone finished writing and back with us.
Let’s take this idea and reiterate what we spoke of at the top of the call. There’s complete confidentiality on this call. No judgments on the part of classmates.
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So what was that experience like to write down all those ideas on the cards?
[some people said: freeing … it would be nice to have meditation tapes in the background … no boundaries when thinking of thousands of years]
Was it hard to write down some of these dreams and thoughts?
[in looking over my list, there’s some that I look at them and wrote them down, and then I look at them and think in a 1000 years they’re not going to matter! They’re kind of short term .... if I look at them again in a deeper vein, some of them I might throw away.] Interesting, so perspective on the broader time line.
Anybody experience a feeling of, sort of, embarrassment, like “who am I to dream such lofty dreams?” I’ve had some people say that! Marianne Williamson said it well when she wrote: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
TIME PRIORITY
WANTS
NEEDS
VISIONS
DREAMS
GOALS
CATEGORY PARTNER
PRIORITIES
A – promise - I will
B – passionate about - I really want to
C – important but not critical to achieve, a possibility - I would like to but not now
D – deferred – not really important for me now
O – obligation - I have to, I ought to
From the book Falling Awake by Dave Ellis