Being the Visionary of Your Own Life

HomeBlogBeing the Visionary of Your Own Life

Google defines “visionary” in the following way:

vi·sion·ar·y

ˈviZHəˌnerē/

adjective

  1. (especially of a person) thinking about or planning the future with imagination and wisdom.

“a visionary leader”

  1. relating to or able to see visions in a dream, trance or through a supernatural event.

“a visionary experience”

noun
1. a person with original ideas about what the future will or could be like.

How many of us stop to consider what it would be like to actively apply the practice of envisioning what our lives are meant to be?

A number of years ago, I created what has become one of my favorite client exercises.  It’s called the Authentic Life Plan and it allows someone to do two things that I know are necessary for creating what we want in life: Dreaming & Defining.

When we were children, we would dream about what we wanted to do and be when we grew up.  We would create exciting visions in which anything was possible.  As we grew older, these visions began, for many, to become more limited and “realistic” in nature.

Yet, to dream is to reach into our deepest well of desire and bring to the surface our authentic wants.  We have these wants because we are meant to.

How often do you focus on what you truly want?
And why is this?

As I was recently telling a client, I have come to believe that the Source of All would not allow a want in us that we were not meant to have. I’m not talking about the surface wants or the dysfunctional ones, I’m referring to the deep, wholehearted and unique wants that each of us holds securely in our hearts; the ones we know will help support us in our greatest greatness.

So, ask yourself, “what do I truly want?”

Then allow yourself the answer that comes from deep within.  Make a space for it in the foundational considerations and decisions of your day to day.

We are meant to create, act and live these deep wants.  This is, to a large degree, I believe, why we came to this glorious life.

Allowing ourselves to put on paper the way we would like our life to be provides us the opportunity to take a step closer to claiming that life.  When we do so with an open mind and heart, we permit ourselves to embrace the dream and to continue to take the steps to bring what we see is possible into reality.

When we write, we do so through the use of language.  The words we choose define the meaning of what we are envisioning.  Therefore, paying special attention to the language we use when communicating our dreams on paper (in our heads or out loud) is very important.  How we say something leads to how we continue to identify and understand it.  This influences our feelings, actions and the responses we have to it.  When that “it” is the vision we have of our very own life, we can see how paramount it is that we take the time to consider, shape and select our words wisely and from a place of real possibility.  Otherwise, we may risk creating something we don’t want.  If we don’t consider what we want at all, we can end up leaving our life up to chance and to the charge of our inner default mechanisms (conditioning, limiting beliefs, fears, etc.).

Oftentimes, the challenge to defining what we want is warming up to the practice of dreaming.
“I’m not really sure what I want,” many will say to me.  This is fair, since quite a few of us have not really allowed ourselves the luxury of considering what it is we really, truly want from the place of knowing we can have it.

A good place to start is answering some lead in questions.  Here are some great ones from Hannah Brame’s recent post, 20 Journaling Prompts for Self Discovery.

  1. What would your ideal day look like?
  2. What is one thing you’ve always wanted to try that you haven’t yet?
  3. What is your biggest regret?
  4. What does a successful life look like to you?
  5. What gives you more energy: being around people or spending time alone?
  6. What are three activities that light you up and leave you feeling most energized?
  7. What is your biggest fear?
  8. What would you say is your biggest strength?
  9. What do you consider to be your most challenging flaw?
  10. What is one aspect of your life you’d like to improve over the next year? What would that improvement look like?
  11. What three to five qualities feel the most important for you to embody?
  12. What is the number one problem you would like to solve (or see solved) in the world?
  13. How are you most often misunderstood by other people?
  14. What are the different roles you play in your life? (e.g. mother, partner, sister, etc.)
  15. What is the best piece of advice you’ve received?
  16. Name one book, movie or TV show that had a profound impact on you and describe why.
  17. What is the number one thing that feels like it’s missing from your life right now?
  18. Who are the three most important people in your life today?
  19. When have you felt at your richest?
  • How do you think the three people closest to you would describe you if asked?

At the end of the day, what do you have to lose?  I mean, really, when you think about it, you have a whole lot more to lose if you don’t begin to take steps to actively and intentionally become the visionary of your own life.

And, hey, if you’d like support in beginning . . . just let me know!