“Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be. Your Ideal (vision) is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.” -James Allen . We had a cool vision exercise as the final intervention of my masters program. Our intact group of students had spent two years learning how to be Organization Development Consultants and this exercise was the last one of our final class on Career Development. How would we put into motion, all that we had learned and turn it into a lifelong passionate career? The exercise was a guided imagery that took us through the ideal perfect day 5 years into the future. (I have since turned it into a writing exercise that you can find at http://bit.ly/bc9Yf7)
I saw myself as an Independent Organization Development Consultant, married with two small children; a boy and a girl. I was home based, but had many small organizations as clients. I was helping them plan, moving them forward. The feeling that I was having an impact that went way beyond the people in that room was so satisfying. When the guided imagery exercise was over, we wrote our experience in great detail in a black and white composition book. At the time I was a newlywed with no kids and I was working for my mom at her real estate company.
Five years later, I was cleaning out the attic, preparing to move to a new house and found that composition book. It was one month past the 5 year date of that experience. Do you know that the only thing that didn’t resemble my life in that moment of time? I had 2 girls instead of a girl and a boy. It gives me chills, just as it did at the time, to think about it.
“You must first clearly see a thing in your mind before you can do it.”- Alex Morrison. See yourself successful and then you put into motion the very thing itself. Imagining it helps make it possible, real for you.
The key to putting a vision in motion after you see it is asking the right questions. What would have to change for this to become a reality in 5 years? What would you have to learn? How would you have to go outside of your comfort zone to get there? Who would you have to meet? What would have to happen first, second, third to move you there? What investments will it take to get there? Then, do those things!
“It takes someone with a vision of the possibilities to attain new levels of experience; someone with the courage to live his dreams.” – Les Brown.
“To the person who does not know where he wants to go there is no favorable wind.”— Seneca See it, and then do it!
P.S. The Eyes: ideal future vision is one of the body parts that will be worked in the Leadership Anatomy Woman’s Retreat: The Body of Skills you Need to Bring your Dream to Life; November 17-21, 2010 in the Sonoma Valley of California. For more information Click http://bit.ly/IY8Cp.
