Commiting to Action ~ Beyond Words on the Page

It’s not enough for a Vision to be down on paper – though that’s a very good start.  For you to realize the Vision of your Transition, you must to commit to action.

What does this involve?

First, it involves defining the action items are under each vision element.  What does it mean to me to ‘Be at home in my first world life?’

The answers are already available to you through your journaling and brainstorming – it’s a matter of pulling them out of the pile of ideas and placing them where they belong. Yes, visioning is a creative process; but structure and order help make a Vision tangible and realizable.  

It was very easy to fill-in the chart. in fact, Coach Leslie threw-out a strawman and I pondered it and did some tweaking. With your trusted adviser, it can be a process of dialogue. I knew, in practice, there would be challenges in each area of engagement; so I added a column to track what would emerged as the process went forward, starting with one very real example:  running on Mexican time in DC?

Here’s what the final Vision matrix looked like:

Domain	Possibility Statement	Areas of Engagement	Practices/ Challenges
“I”	I want to be at peace (at home) in  my  “1st world life”	·        Open state of mind: appreciation, abundance, celebration, freedom, joy, fun, ‘champagne’ ·        Spiritual practice, health, fitness	Mexican time in DC?
“WE”	I want to feel joined and witnessed	·   Reconnection: sangha, friends, colleagues; socializing, cycling, yoga ·   “Peace Corps Goal 3” – bringing the lessons home, finding my voice, using my Spanish/cross-cultural understanding and sharing it ·   Dating, intimacy, love
“IT”	I want to bring my learning and experience forward in tangible ways	·   Book ·   Sustainable house renovation ·   Advocacy component of Peace Corps “Goal 3”

 

Now I had something concrete to commit to. You can and should post this Vision on your fridge or above your desk as a reminder.  

And there's nothing so powerful as speaking your vision aloud for others to hear.  Share it with a friend and ask her to check-in with you from time to time:  How’s your transition going?

You can track your progress on paper, using that forth column to take notes on the challenges and practices that help.  If you’re working with a coach, she can help you reflect on what’s working and what’s not as the process unfolds.  

The important thing is that the structure is in place for you to realize your Vision.  The journey can now begin.

Hold on to your sombrero....

Formulating a Vision ~ Three Clear Statements

Media Luna, Rioverde, SLP, Mexico

Now that you’ve done some brainstorming and visualizing about your Transition, it’s time to make sense of the ideas.  If you’ve allowed your muse to do its thing, you’ve likely uncovered some interesting nuggets. Working with a *trusted advisor* - a coach (yep, even coaches need coaches), a support group, or on rare occasion a mindful friend may be skillful enough to help – you can formulate the ideas into a Vision.

In a Skype call with Coach Leslie, we reviewed my list together. I’d emailed it to her ahead of time, along with some poignant journal entries; so we were on the same page.  But it’s the speaking and sharing process that’s important at this stage. The process is not about asking for validation; what you need from your trusted adviser are probing questions, genuine curiosity, active listening and mirroring that will bring your true vision to light.  

Thanks to Leslie’s skillful guidance, and my genuine engagement in the process, within a one-hour session we’d transformed that jumble of words and ideas into three clear possibility statements:

I want to be at peace (at home) in  my  “1st world life”

I want to feel joined and witnessed

I want to bring my learning and experience forward in tangible ways

 
Be aware:  you may notice a little resistance to boxing the ideas in so neat and tidily.  There was a moment where I felt it myself, like:  hey, wait a minute, where’s my laundry list, did we lose anything?  With such a clear, clean list that is action-able, you face the truth of what needs to be done – and you may actually have to just DO it.  

So take the time to notice Resistance if it comes up.  And take the time for validation.  You want to buy-in to your own Vision.  Reading the statements aloud you can gauge:  How do they sound and feel?  Do they create a sense of excitement and possibility?  Do they feel overwhelming? Do they sink or swim?

You can tweak them if need be. I added (at home) to my first possibility statement because that phrase deeply connected to my anticipated return home to Washington. You can toss them out if they just do not fit, and start again.  But chances are, if you did your homework and really tapped into your heart’s desire in Step 1, this Vision will resonate.

Mine sure did.  It made complete sense to me.  It was also simple – all that jumble of thinking, dreaming, notes and ideas seemed to organically boil-down to three clear possibility statements. And that felt do-able.  

Now all I needed to do was commit…and act.