What follows is part IV of a multi-part article. If you’d prefer to start with part I, click here: Focusing on What You Love (Part I). Part II can be found at this link: Focusing on What You Love (Part II) and Part III is here: Focusing on What You Love (Part III)
Now that we’ve gotten focused on our dreams, how do we stay focused?
One option would be to use brute-force willpower. Does that sound at all fun? If that was my only choice, I’d give up right away because, not only is it not fun, it’s impossible. People aren’t made that way. You can do it for short bursts if it’s truly important, but that’s it.
Fortunately, there’s another option. We have an ally who is always with us, helping us in the background. Helping us breathe and drive and thousands of other things that we don’t notice. Some people call it our subconscious mind. I prefer juicier terms like our heart or gut because it gives us a better idea of how they ask our ally for help. Minds are logical and communicate in words. On the other hand, hearts and guts have very little use for logic and they communicate in emotions and impressions.
So how do we get our ally on board? Easy, we create a vision. Now, if you’ve ever been the victim of a dry corporate vision, don’t worry. This is something much richer. Look ahead to a time when your dream has come true. Look around yourself there. What is something compelling and wonderful that you see there? Something that can only be there after the dream has come true.
As an example, here is one of my dreams. I dream of helping huge numbers of people turn their dreams into reality. (There’s more to it, but for simplicity I’ll stop there.) When you read that, does it sound rich in emotions and impressions? Nope. With only that, our ally can hardly hear us and doesn’t have anything to latch onto. So here’s a vision to go along with that dream. My business partner and I are in a large ballroom holding a success dinner where we recognize the successes of the people we’ve helped. The ballroom is filled to capacity and buzzing with happy people comparing stories. Now that’s something our ally can latch onto. Can you see it? Hear it? Smell it? I can.
With a juicy vision, our ally can help keep our motivation high and our spirits up in the face of any bumps in the road. Our ally can help steer us every day as we make choices.
