Are you someone who’s created a vision-board for your heart’s desires? Have you made a collage of important quotations, key words and images that motivate you toward the goals you’ve set for your life? If so, then, you’ll likely understand the essence of this blog.
Some of the toughest road-blocks to imagining the future you want are the belief systems that limit your thinking and discourage you from imagining that you can have the life you want, or that you deserve to have that life!
While our minds can be amazing tools for imagining what might be, they’re (unfortunately) even better at worrying about what might interfere and how every-day threats to our safety and security might get in the way of our wished-for happiness.
Worry is the default mode for the human mind and if we let it, this auto-pilot way of thinking impede us from working through genuine obstacles we face. Worry can stop us in our tracks before we even begin the journey toward the life we love.
Worry serves a purpose. It is built into our earliest brain structures (often referred to as the reptilian brain) to preserve us from the genuine dangers in the world. And, in the pre-historic world, when life was fraught with seriously life-threatening situations, we needed to be on high alert periodically lest we fall prey to the over-sized tiger or freeze to death when the weather brought on by a sudden storm.
Today, we certainly face real, and sometimes life-threatening situations (crime, traffic, climate change, environmental toxins, etc.) but they’re not lurking around every corner, immediately endangering our lives. And often, we can minimize our exposure to many of them using the higher functions of our brain – our decision-making, executive functioning, frontal lobes.
Self-care is every conscious action you take that feeds your soul, nourishes your body, nurtures your spirit, or replenishes your relationship with yourself!
What stands in our way… So, what’s blocking you from creating a clear vision of the life you want? And, honestly, what’s standing in the way of your attaining that richly imagined picture? Is it a self-limiting belief system? Is it a set of familiar (often derogatory) self-talk messages that discourage you from aiming for what you genuinely want? Is it life circumstances that are difficult or even oppressive? Is it the lack of some essential resource for moving forward (like time, money, education or support)? What stands in YOUR way?
Sometimes, our goals are too short-sighted. We treat life-changing plans as if they were quarterly goals and pretend that we can Build Rome in a Day. Bill Gates is credited with the statement: “people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in 10 years.” That said, perhaps one important strategy is to stretch out our thinking and play the L-O-N-G game. Where do you want to be in the next decade? How will life look different then? What do you need to be engaged in so that realistic, yet lofty, goals have time to come to fruition – time to mature into reality?
Zig Zigler is quoted as saying, “Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation.” Which leads me to the question, what are you doing to prepare for the success you imagine?
What are the daily micro-changes needed in your thinking, your self-talk, your relationships, your habits and patterns that form the preparation you’ll need for encountering the opportunity that can introduce you to your success?
I’m busy making some important micro-changes in my own life (and business) so that I’m better prepared to encounter the opportunity that awaits me. And, even in my 70s, I’m thinking about how I want life in the next decade to look and to feel. What are you dreaming about? What’s on YOUR vision board for the years ahead?
Let me know if I can help you prepare for the life you want, the life you’ll love, the life you deserve!
