It’s about two weeks now since we had our Vision Workshop in Cork. How have you been doing in terms of keeping your focus and attention on the vision you created at the workshop? It’s hard, isn’t it to maintain your focus on the wanted results, when all around you, you are still most likely dealing with the longings and discontents that gave rise to your vision in the first place.
Even if you weren’t with us in Cork, no doubt you set intentions or New Year’s resolutions for 2024. Are you making progress towards those new results? Or are you finding yourself slipping back into the familiar routines – both in terms of your thinking and your behaviour?
The power of our paradigms is real and it needs to be respected! It is why having structures of support around you is such a game changer to empower you to keep yourself on track and maintain your focus and attention on your vision.
The fact that it’s hard to maintain focus on the results you want does not mean that your vision is unachievable. So let’s take a moment today to remind ourselves of the importance of your vision and why it is so worthwhile to keep your attention on it.
“When the soul wishes to experience something she throws an image of the experience before her and enters into her own image.”
~Meister Eckhart
I know you understand this in principle! You are aware that you must “start with the end in mind” as Stephen Covey put it and that it is essential to have a clear vision for the results you’d love.
But do you have any idea what you are actually thinking about all day? It may sound like a silly question, but most of us don’t actually observe the detail of what’s constantly going on inside our heads. And unless we make a conscious effort to watch ourselves from the sidelines, our everyday thoughts and our reactions to our environment are largely habitual. Current scientific estimates are that 95% of our thinking is unconscious!
We do our daily work and we plan and we interact with our fellow human beings, and in the background, we also have secret fears, grudges and a great deal of negative self talk. And if you really pay attention carefully, you’ll begin to see that the reality outside yourself mirrors what is going on inside your head. This is the universal Law of Attraction at work and it applies to all of us without question.
What you focus on expands. If you are constantly worrying about this or that…then guess what? You will attract more events in your life to worry about. It really is that simple. If you tell yourself NOT to worry about something…well you are still focused on that thing and so your attention is still on a frequency and vibration of worry.
The trick is to think about what you DO want and not what you DON’T want. And I fully acknowledge that that is easier said than done! It’s not easy to change a lifetime of habitual thinking, but just being aware that this is what is required is a step in the right direction. You can now begin to catch yourself in your internal dramas. When you do, celebrate your awareness. You now have an opportunity to raise your vibration to something more in harmony with your vision and the results you’d love.
This is something we work on a lot in my coaching programmes, how to keep your focus and attention on your vision more often than not and how to interrupt the habitual patterns that have been keeping you stuck. For the purposes of today’s blog, I just want to give you a quick way for breaking your habitual patterns. In those moments when you notice you are stuck on an old loop, breathe, come present to yourself and then ask: what can I think, do or say that will shift my energy to something that make me feel better? Then do the thing that comes to mind.
If you feel better, you become ‘unstuck’ from your familiar pattern and can move on. Your perspective changes and you are back in the flow for the time being. Sometimes, feeling better means that you might still run through what you might consider as negative emotions such as anger, but if it lifts you out of depression or despair, then it is a step in the right direction. You can continue to move up the emotional scale from there until you are feeling more positive emotions such as pleasure, love, and gratitude.
In order to create new results you must change the habitual thoughts, self-talk and reactions. The importance of your vision is that it gives you a new location for your thoughts, one that is focused on outcomes you’d love. As you keep your attention on your vision, it will also give rise to new ideas for how to bring your vision to fruition.
And know that just because you are more focused on your vision and taking action towards it, it doesn’t mean that everything is plain sailing all the time. Personal changes can sometimes bring about a certain amount of upheaval in your life, and that is perfectly normal. Recognizing the chaos as part of the process will help to keep you moving forward.
I have a client currently who is selling her home to make space for the new home she’d love. At the moment life is a mess of boxes and packing. It doesn’t feel great. But it is also what is going to get her to where she wants to be, so she is knuckling down and focusing on the end result and the home of her dreams.
We have a great phrase that my clients work with in those moments when life is very messy: “This is just what it [my life] looks like while it [my vision] is all working out.” Use this mantra when navigating the sometimes messy journey from where you are to where you want to be.
I will leave you today with this thought:
“Creative thought requires attention, and the power of attention is, as we have found, the weapon of the superman [and superwoman]. Attention develops concentration, and concentration develops Spiritual Power, and Spiritual Power is the mightiest force in existence.”
~Charles Haanel
Your vision is creative thought. And it requires your attention. The more you give it your attention it develops concentration, which in turn develops spiritual power. You have it within you to develop your spiritual power, the mightiest force in existence. You have it within you to realise your vision and dreams. Fuel your vision to fuel your results.
If you’d like some support in developing your vision and your superpowers for bringing it to fruition, be sure and reach out. Go to the link here to book a Complimentary Strategy Session and we’ll have an hour together to clarify you vision and your immediate next steps.
And save the dates for our next Vision Workshop – 19-21 April 2024, live in Cork. This three-day immersive experience is a great way to charge your vision and fuel yourself in readiness for the new results you’d love in 2024.
Cover Photo by Michael Fousert on Unsplash