Want to Change Your Life?
Change Your Vision
A couple of months ago I bought my wife a Jeep. It wasn’t a big deal for a couple of reasons. I’ve bought a lot of vehicles in my life and it’s not one of the super cars you see all the “gurus” posing in front of to validate their success.
At the same time, it was a big deal for a couple of reasons. My wife has wanted this vehicle for several years and it was always out of reach financially for us. But even more significantly than the financial element is that it was part of a vision we had created for our future. Knowing exactly what my wife wanted, walking into a dealer, pointing at it and saying, “I want that vehicle”, was great, but seeing my vision actually materialize was incredibly empowering.
Why Do We Fail?
You’ve probably seen, or even personally experienced, the woeful statistics on how often people reach a goal they’ve set. If you haven’t seen the stats, they’re pretty bad. A University of Scranton study showed 92% of us don’t reach New Year’s goals we set for ourselves. There are hundreds of articles and tips about how to keep these resolutions. Yet we still fail, usually after only a few short weeks.
Beyond goal setting though, we still battle in trying to improve our lives. A good friend recently asked, “What advice would you give on replacing fears with faith? All too often I feel a seed of ambition sprout with faith only to be quickly scorched and shriveled by fear. It plagues and paralyzes me.”
Why is it that as a collective species (that I believe is destined to grow and expand throughout our lives) so many of us struggle to create real change? What are we missing?
We’re Missing a Vision.
In my article “It Might be Time to Box the Compass”, I mentioned that without vision, all the challenges and trials we experience in life can easily derail us and push us back into our comfort zone.
But when you create a vision for a life beyond what is comfortable, and then build a vision-centered plan to get there, you unleash a power beyond yourself that pulls the circumstances, people and opportunities into your sphere to aid you in your journey.
I know that sounds like a line out of The Secret but isn’t that what faith is about? Trusting that when we do our part in achieving the things that align with our values, the universe will step in and provide the way to receive what we desire.
So, in reply to my friend’s question in terms of designing and creating the life you want (vs physical or emotional struggles, which is a different story) — I don’t necessarily think fear causes us to not take action. It is certainly a factor, but when we don’t have a clear vision of what that life could look like — and more importantly, the intermediary steps we need to take to get there — we don’t have the inspiration to move forward through fear or all the things that gut-punch us in life. But defining all those elements in a way that we know today what actions we need to take to get to our 3 month goal, to get to our 1-year goal, to get to our 3–5 year vision, to get to our life vision — we just do what we’ve always done and get the results we always have.
Now obviously, we’re not going to get everything we desire, but creating a faith-based, vision-centered plan will generate momentum in your life and allow for powerful growth.
So, what is a vision-centered plan? If you haven’t read my Box the Compass post, start there. It will show you how to develop a foundational vision that will guide everything else in your plan. You can also download a template to help you create your own Life Vision. Once you’ve digested that, the next step is to create a 3–5 Year Vision.
Your 3 to 5-Year Vision
This is very similar to the Life Vision. You’re looking to create a vivid, almost journal-entry statement about what a perfect day looks like in the next 3 to 5 years. Where are you in your life? Who is present? What is happening around you? What abundance have you created? Get very specific and push yourself.
Are you in a new home? Taking a real vacation as a family for the first time? Driving a new car? Running a marathon? Completely out of debt?
Unlike the Life Vision, where you dreamed beyond your current abilities and did not set a time-frame, you want the 3 to 5-Year Vision to be something you really believe you can achieve within that time frame but that will take consistent, focused effort and real change to arrive at. It is not just an incremental increase of where you’re at now or a by-product of what you’re currently doing. Getting a raise at work is not a stretch — push further.
If you struggle with this, whatever the reason, just for a minute discard the beliefs that limit your desire to dream. Pretend this is a harmless exercise and give yourself permission to ask for what you want, regardless of whether you feel worthy to receive it or fearful of your ability to create it.
As you did with the Life Vision, research your vision, find out what it will take to get there and include it as part of your plan. Talk to travel agents, drive that car, walk through homes that are for sale — whatever it takes to create clarity and precision to your plan. The more details you include, the more vivid and attainable it will become.
But Does This Work?
Two years ago next month, I went to my doctor. I was terrified that I had cancer. I couldn’t mow our very small lawn without resting, mountains that had been easy to climb were completely exhausting me, I had lost way too much weight and my skin color was horrible. I had been ignoring obvious distress signals my body was sending me for way too long. I was out of work and desperate for a change in my life.
Call it luck, call it coincidence, call it whatever you want but when I started defining exactly what I wanted my life to look like, the universe responded and things immediately began to change.
My physical health was the result of severe anemia. Six pints of blood in the ER and a simple surgery and I felt brand new again. An amazing opportunity presented itself out of nowhere. And less than two years later I finally bought my wife her dream car. I still have many things in my vision I’m working on, but the results have given me so much to be grateful for and so much that I want to share.
My vision right now is to help as many people as possible experience the peace that comes from knowing, with clarity, what you want and how you’re going to get it.
Download a free template for a 3 to 5-Year Vision and an example of what a completed one looks like and start designing your life on purpose.
Let me know if you have comments or feedback — I love hearing from you. And please share this with someone that might benefit from it.
