Do things feel a little ‘off’?
How are you? Be honest.
Are you happy in your role and business? Is everything flowing perfectly towards your BIG vision? Or could you do making a few tweaks (or even a complete Trinny and Susannah style makeover?)
Maybe you feel stuck, like you’re under a big black cloud and don’t know how to get out?
Or, do you feel like you need to make a change, but don’t know how, or even what it is you need to do?
Maybe it’s time to realign your BIG vision?
A great starting point is to get clear on your BIG vision. Even if you’ve already done some vision work, things can change, so you might need to realign that vision, or create a completely new one.
Getting clear on your vision may sound a bit airy-fairy, but I promise you, it’s not. It’s the direction you decide to point your business towards, to keep your actions consistently heading the right way. If you don’t know where you’re heading towards, how can you know you’re taking the right actions every day to get there, or just going around in circles?
Sustainability Expert and Storyteller extraordinaire, Mark Shayler, recently quoted Rodgers and Hammerstein on my podcast Story Slurp when he said, “If you don’t have a dream, how can you have a dream come true?’
You need to get clear on that dream, that BIG vision, to ever stand a chance of making it happen.
Often, we know very well what our vision is deep down, but it gets buried in a cloud of ‘shoulds’, expectations, routines, habits and good old burying our head in the sand. Because sometimes our vision requires a lot of change, and that can be hard work.
But if you don’t face into that, you’ll never really be living your best life and creating your dream business. So maybe now is the time to reset your BIG vision?
The benefits of getting clear on your vision
Vision work can be great fun, as it allows you to cast off all expectations and limitations and go crazy. And the magical thing is, that once you get clear on that vision (what you really want to achieve), you are:
- Less likely to get distracted by shiny objects
- More likely to carry out tasks that take them closer to that vision
- Have much more energy and excitement to move towards that vision (because it’s what you actually want).
Sounds good? Want to know more? That’s great! But look out for ‘The Maze’. Because that can make it a bit trickier to get clear on your BIG vision.
Is ‘The Maze’ getting in the way of understanding your vision?
The Maze – is how I describe our own reality. We’re so much inside our own stories, our own situation, that we can’t see things clearly. It’s like being stuck in the middle of one of those mazes you find at stately homes. All you can see is green leafy hedge in front of you, green leafy hedge to the side of you and green leafy hedge behind you. You feel stuck, claustrophobic and can’t see the way out, simply because you’re stuck right in the middle of it all. (Btw, we all have this problem, me too – it’s why even coaches need coaches.)
That’s why tools like journalling and coaching are essential – to help you see a birds eye view of the maze you’re stuck in.
Your vision is in your subconscious mind – which means it’s there, but not at the front of our mind. Deep down you know what your BIG vision is. But it’s buried in a cloud of ‘shoulds’, expectations, routines and habits – your own perceived reality – which makes up the feeling of being in a maze.
To get clear on your BIG vision (and other things, like your values, purpose etc), you need to access your subconscious thoughts.
Here are 3 tools to help you do this:
Coaching – to help you find your vision
Qualified coaches are highly skilled in asking the right questions and observing your answers, to help dig down into your subconscious and start uncovering that vision. Sometimes you may even be a little bit in denial about what that vision is, but a good coach will challenge you and help you to shape your vision, so that you can really delve down deep and create a vision that truly aligns with you. If you don’t get a vision that really aligns with you on a deep level, it won’t create all those benefits I mentioned above, of giving you energy to move forward, because you won’t be truly motivated by it.
Most of my coaching clients are stuck in the maze, and don’t know how to get out. Then, it’s almost magical to see how, after a few coaching sessions, the fog starts to lift. They start to become clearer on the vision they need to get to. They get clear on the vision they want to create, and how to change it to make it work better for them. Then they can start piecing together a plan to get there. Sometimes they just need a tweak, sometimes it’s a complete transformation – it depends.
Suddenly that big black cloud isn’t quite as dark any more and they start to feel hopeful. Then they start to get excited. The energy of that exciting future that was buried inside them all along, starts to seem firstly a possibility, and then a possible reality.
Fast forward a few months and they’re starting to put the black cloud behind them, as they move towards a new, exciting vision of the future.
But it all started with getting clear on what’s wrong with their current vision and what’s the vision they want to create, which we work through in our coaching sessions together.
You can find out more about 1-1 coaching with me here.
Guiding vision meditations
Another great tool, which I sometimes use with my clients (and I also make available on my Brand Story Clarity Challenge), is using a guided meditation. This is a recording which you listen to in a relaxed state, to help you tap into what your true vision is. After you’ve listened to the meditation, you can jot down (either by writing or doodling) anything that comes to mind.
Guided vision meditations can be a helpful tool if you’re getting in your own way and are struggling to see what your BIG vision is.
Vision journalling
Journalling and reflection is a powerful tool for any kind of introspection. There’s just something about the connection between our mind and a blank page, when we allow ourselves to write/draw freely, without second guessing what we’re writing. Thoughts from our subconscious (ones we didn’t even know were there, or didn’t want to acknowledge), can pop up onto the page.
I’ve had many ‘aha’ moments through journalling, which is why it’s a technique I often recommend to coaching clients between sessions.
It is also very easy and (pretty much) free to do!
I encourage people to start journalling around their vision by thinking first about their dream day, because this is more specific and easier to get your head around than a whole business or career.
You can use a journal, but you could also just use a scrap of paper (and sometimes using a scrappy bit of waste paper can actually be more freeing). Here’s how I like to journal for the best results:
- Grab a pen, a journal/ sheet of paper and set a timer for 10 mins.
- Write, “What is my dream day,” at the top of your paper/journal.
- Let your pen flow without stopping for 10 mins. Don’t go back and read it, don’t edit it and don’t think about what you’re writing. Just let your pen flow.
- Leave what you’ve journalled for at least an hour. Then go back and see what you’ve written – does anything surprise you? What changes can you make to help move towards this vision? Is it a case of making small tweaks, or a complete change? Can you start to create a plan to move you towards that BIG vision?
What’s your vision, then?
You’ve got to get clear on the dream, the destination, the vision, if you want to make things better.
You can use any of the above techniques, or all of them combined. You also won’t suddenly create that BIG vision overnight…it may take some time to tease out and bring to life. So whichever method you choose, you may need to keep doing it, and be patient.
When you finally get clear on your BIG vision, you’ll find you’ve finally got a direction to head towards, and with that newfound clarity around what you were meant to do, you’ll have a burst of energy and will get more excited about the future.
It’s why I love doing what I do – to help people get much clearer on the reality they’re in and what they need to change to create a business more in alignment with them, that flows so much easier for them. A business that gives more than it takes. A business that fills them up and inspires them, and lets them have a life outside that business. A business that still takes hard work and determination, but doesn’t take over. A business that doesn’t feel like a slog because it’s their passion.
I’ve seen EVERYTHING shift into place for coaching clients when they get clear on their vision – and finally realise what they really want. Then we can start creating a plan together to help them move towards that BIG vision.
But it all starts with facing into your current reality, getting clear on your vision and creating a plan to move you from one place to the other.
Drop me a line here to find out how coaching could help you get clear on your BIG vision.
Remember, if you don’t have a dream, how can you have a dream come true?