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.