Are your days filled with troubles and difficulties; your mind constantly anxious about your situation, fearing the future you have ahead of you? The power of your mind is exceptional, and can shape your future in such wonderful ways and all you have to do is take time, every day, to imagine a perfect life ahead of you. You don’t have to allow negativity to overwhelm you, in fact you can fight against it. Creating this picture in your mind and focusing on your perfect life vision will not just empower you, taking your mind away from its normal negativity but also set you on the path towards the creation of this vision in reality.
Do you hold on to a perfect life vision within your mind that inspires you every day?
Do you have a clear picture in your head of what you want to be, what you want to have, and what you want to be doing in five or ten years’ time?
Do you at least know what you want to have achieved by the end of your life?
I haven’t lived a perfect life. I have regrets. But that’s from a lifetime of taking chances, making decisions, and trying not to be frozen. The only thing that I can do with my regrets is understand them. Kevin Costner
My life successes demonstrate how goals are a driving force and inspiration to us. My failures demonstrate how life becomes undirected and chaotic when you don’t have any goals to compel you.
If you want to succeed, you need to set goals.
But it all starts with developing the picture in your head of the life you want to live.
Having a compelling vision is what will keep you going when the going gets tough. It’s what will be in your head those mornings you wake up with a smile on your face.
Throughout my period of ill health and the struggles it brought, sometimes it felt easier to just give up. Accept the things that had happened and know that my health would constantly be the driving force of my life. I refused to do this because it would mean giving up on my perfect life vision, and this still had the power to drive me forward refusing to give up.
I am speaking with someone who demonstrates the importance of not just having a future vision, but one so strong, that you so want, that it will power you up no matter the difficulties you face.
She finds herself 10,000 miles away from all her loved ones, in particular her son and daughter, and her very special grandchildren, one of whom she’s never been able to see, and this makes her extremely sad. She’s gone through a tough time. She now finds herself alone, struggling with major health issues, lost in her battle to just get through the day. Some mornings she can’t even get out of bed, and even if it wasn’t because of her health, her mind at times asks ‘why bother, what is there for me to do.’
Well she now has a reason.
It was her son’s birthday a few days ago. She had a brief chat with him before he and the rest of the family went out for dinner and as she came off the phone thought to herself ‘I wish so much I could be there doing all those things with them.’ As a result she became very sad. In her words she said:
Just down in the dumps today, got nothing particular to do apart from the rest of the clearing up so can’t see any point in moving my backside into gear, in fact actually feel like going back to bed for an hour or so & haven’t felt like that in a while maybe I’m just a bit over tired which is why I feel miserable.’
But in what she’s already said it is obvious she has her answer, just that she’s not encapsulated it into a clear, concise picture. Once she has it, believes in its possibility, and wants it enough then she can begin setting her goals and make her plan so that every day she can then take action to work towards its achievement.
She now needs to build her big picture, her perfect life vision, around the words she said: ‘I wish so much I could be there doing all those things with them.’ Although she’s talked about her desire to move back to Australia, as yet she has neither the clear vision, belief or action plan to make it happen. Well now she can, will and must create the vision of life in say 5 years’ time, where she has a lovely house, sees it in her mind exactly as she would want it to be, with each room looking perfect. Then seeing herself with her children and her grandchildren sharing many happy moments, creating wonderful new memories. Her car parked at the front of her house, whatever car she will own in this dream. Perhaps baking cakes that have been ordered by her clients, as she now owns a very successful online cake business, having been a top chef this is something she’d love to do. Leaving her house to go next door to the adjacent building that happens to be a guest house that she owns and she just needs to go check everything’s ready for the new residents arriving today. All things she’s mentioned but never put together in her powerful vision for her future.
Once she has this vision, then not only will she be driven every day by the prospects of what it shows, but she will carry out the steps necessary, and find the power from within that she didn’t know she had to get everything done, step by step, achieving everything so as to make it all happen. Believing it all can happen the way she needs it to.
You can do the same for your life. Before setting your goals you need to give yourself a long-term perfect life vision that truly excites you. First you create your “big picture” of what you want to do with your life (or over, say, the next 5 to 10 years), and identify the large-scale goals that you want to achieve. Then, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit to reach your lifetime goals. Finally, once you have your plan, you start working on it to achieve these goals. This is exactly what the Single Page Plan enables you to do.
“Dream big dreams. Only big dreams have the power to move men’s souls” Marais Aurelius
Many people feel as if they’re adrift in the world. They work hard, but they don’t seem to get anywhere worthwhile. A key reason that they haven’t spent enough time thinking about what they want from life, and therefore haven’t been able to set the goals which will ultimately lead you to your future perfect life vision.
After all, would you set out on a major journey with no real idea of your destination? Probably not!
This is why we start the process of setting goals by looking at your lifetime goals by picturing the vision of your life in the future when everything is perfect in your life. After that you would need to work down to the things that you can do over the next five years, starting from today, next week, next month, next year and onward.
But the first step and the one we’re going to look at is to build the clear vision of what you want to achieve in your lifetime. Finding this first will ensure from then on you’ll know the best use of your time and energy.
So how do you find the vision of your future? The simple answer is that it is within you. It’s born in your heart and mind. It is going to be the life you were born to have, the one that will make life joyful. It’s time for you to dream. Let your thoughts fly. Those who dream, who set goals and act on them to live out their dreams are those who live lives of joy and have a sense of peace and fulfilment. Life is too short to not pursue your dreams, no matter how old you are.
Creating and seeing your perfect life vision is a big part of the Single Page Plan. Through the power of visualisation everyone has the ability to see their brilliant future in their mind.
“Someday your life will near its end and all you will be able to do is look backwards. You can reflect with joy or regret. Those who dream, who set goals and act on them to live out their dreams are those who live lives of joy and have a sense of peace when they near the end of their lives.” Jim Rohn
I hope you enjoyed this post, and if you have any further thoughts, ideas, reflections or suggestions about this topic, than please feel free to comment below.
photo credit: jean louis mazieres IMG_3334B François Xavier Fabre. 1766-1837. Montpellier. La mort de Narcisse. Death of Narcissus. 1814. Montpellier Musée Fabre. via photopin (license)
