Everyone tells you that you must have a clear vision of where you want to go and who you want to be. Not everyone tells you exactly how – and how not – to get to that vision.

1. Transforming your year
Everyone tells you that you must have a clear vision of where you want to go and who you want to
be. Not everyone tells you exactly how – and how not – to get to that vision.
For example, suppose you want a life in which you are
well paid and appreciated for your work. You want
warm relationships and the time to pursue them.
But suppose your nagging belief is that it’s simply not
possible. After all, you’ve spent years piling up
evidence to tell you that.
So you sit down, meditate, and envision in exact detail
what you want. You then open your eyes and everything is still the same.
Vision isn’t enough
A fellow coach tells the story of a woman to whom he was talking. She had a serious weight
problem, and he asked her what she was doing to challenge it. She replied that she sat on her sofa
every day for thirty minutes and visualized herself losing weight.
That, of course, was the problem. Vision should be the carrot that draws you forward, taking the
steps necessary to reach that dream. It should not be a dream in which you submerge yourself in
fantasy, waiting for things to happen.
It’s not enough to dream; you must walk the walk.
So you say, “OK, I’ve tried that, and I’m exhausted. I mapped out all the steps, followed them
carefully, and it still didn’t work.” Maybe that was the problem.
Throw away the list
One of the reasons we fall into despair over the seeming impossibility of meeting our vision is that
we believe we have walked the path leading to that vision – perhaps many times – yet we’ve never
reached that Promised Land.
What probably happened was this: you made a list of the logical (to you) steps you needed to take
to get there.
You started to follow those steps. You brushed aside distractions.
At some point, you were blocked, or exhausted, or rejected, or disheartened. You lost your dream.
It’s a little like taking a path that’s edged with a tall, thorny hedge. That hedge gets in the way, and
you can’t even see the fields on either side of the path, fields filled with blooming flowers and
sparkling brooks. All you can see is the rocky path ahead and the thorny hedge walling you in.
Maybe some of those distractions were not actually wrong paths at all, but alternate, pleasanter, and
faster ways to get to where you want to be.
So don’t make that rigid plan. An inspiring vision opens you up to all the possibilities in your
environment that you haven’t seen before.

2. Try this exercise that I like to do with clients: what do you see here?
OPPORTUNITYISNOWHERE
The way in which you break this phrase up into separate words is a strong indication of your current
mindset. What do you see?*
Truly creative people don’t use lists: they pay a lot of attention to their vision and notice everything
in the present that confirms its reality.
Pay attention to your emotions: honor them, and recognize they are just temporary, like sudden
summer storms that appear, rage, and then disappear, leaving a clear sky and sun.
Despair happens to everyone, every now and then. The problem is, when it hits, we picture
ourselves sunk in a never-ending sea of despair. It’s such a heavy feeling that it forces us to sit
down and stop working in order to support it.
Pay attention to when despair hits: for me, it’s about 4 p.m. and I have learned that my energy level
is simply low at that hour, so I turn temporarily away from doing anything productive to reach my
dream.
Here are two despair-chasing phrases I use all the time:
There is a solution. I just can’t see it right now.
and
I can’t handle this right now. I’ll worry about it tomorrow.
Angry at feeling rejected or blocked? Use your anger as energy; turn it into determination to
succeed, then look around you for another path that isn’t blocked.
Unload the baggage, those memories of past setbacks, and load your mind with warm, successful
memories. Collect every scrap of evidence you can that records your progress through life – skills
mastered, certificates gained, warm notes telling you how important you are to others, and go over
them every night just before bedtime.
It’s really all about getting out of your own way.
I hope you love these quotes from Tut, The Universe, as much as I do:
“Rarely are the first steps in a journey anything like the final ones, either in direction, pace, or
grace.“
“Simply stand aside, let spirit emerge, have no doubt, and your wings will appear.”
* “Opportunity is nowhere” or “Opportunity is now here”
Lynette Crane is a Minneapolis-based speaker, writer, and coach. She has more than 30 years'
experience in the field of stress and time management and personal growth. Her latest book is The
Confident Introvert, written to help introverts overcome the stress of living in a culture that
idealizes extroversion, so that they can thrive, and not just survive.Visit her website at
http://www.creativelifechanges.com/ to see more in-depth articles and to view her programs.