When everything in our lives seems to be in flux, it can feel like we’re in reactive mode. So today, I wanted to shine a light your way and encourage you around how Visioning can help you even in times of uncertainty.
Even when everything around us is in limbo, we can still make our lives happen, instead of letting them happen to us.
Recently, one of my Visionaries reached out to me because she was feeling really off. She felt like she was in “fire-fighting mode” and not able to focus on or be intentional about her life. On top of that, the outbreak of the Coronavirus is directly affecting her work, and she was feeling overwhelmed and depleted.
I realized that many other Visionaries were likely feeling a lot of the same pressures and concerns, and I wanted to let you in on the ideas that I shared with her about how to apply some of our Visioning strategies even in the most uncertain situations.
In a time when we’re focused on minute-to-minute updates, it can be refreshing to think about the long-term view. When there’s so much we can’t control, you can still control your definition of success and be proactive and intentional toward creating the future you want.
Here are some ways Visioning can help you during times of uncertainty:
Ground yourself in long-term thinking
This too shall pass. While it’s important that we all stay up-to-date with what’s happening, at the same time, feeling a collective focus on what’s right in front of us can be scary and exhausting. Re-grounding ourselves in long-term thinking can alleviate some of the stress and help us remember that
The Visionary mindset is about moving towards what we do want instead of away from what we don’t want. If we think about moving away from what we don’t want, we’re responding from a reactive stance. If we think about moving towards what we do want, we’re able to respond from a proactive stance.
One of my Visionaries from Massachusetts once told me, “If you ask different questions, you’ll get different answers,” and I think it’s a brilliant reminder. So, how can we change the questions we’re asking ourselves right now, and in doing so, get different, more uplifting answers?
Use short-term Visioning to become successful every day
When there’s so much going on, and things are changing so rapidly, it can be comforting to know you always have the tool of short-term Visioning in your pocket. We talk about Vision as a definition of success at a specific point in the future, and while we often think of a 3-year or 5-year Vision, that specific point in the future can be much sooner.
In fact, a Vision for the day can be extremely powerful. A daily Vision could be a sentence or a short paragraph. It’s something you can do in the morning or at night for the next day. You could write it in a journal or on the back of a napkin.
Right now it can feel like success is defined by being in control, understanding everything that’s going on, and doing everything you can about it…but that can also feel like a never-ending battle.
A daily Vision can help you re-think that idea of success and shift it. The truth is that external factors are always beyond our control. We can read or watch the news all day and still not know all the latest updates. We can be trying our best, and we still might feel like we could be doing more.
When writing your daily Vision, remember to write it in the present tense. Writing your Vision like it has already happened helps you make decisions throughout the day that get you closer to making it a reality rather than taking you farther away from it.
Focusing on the evidence you’ve gotten to where you wanted to go helps connect you not just with the results you want to achieve but the feeling, mindset or perspective you want to cultivate throughout the day.
Oftentimes we pin our definition of success to someone or something else, but Visioning reminds us that while we can’t control situations or people, we can define success in terms of the only thing we can control – ourselves.
It’s important that our daily Vision is at the intersection of inspiring and attainable so that we know we’re working towards something realistic, instead of a pie-in-the-sky fantasy for the day.
Go ahead, close your eyes
Now more than ever it’s tempting to reach for our phones as soon as we open our eyes in the morning and start scrolling for the latest updates. But what if you kept your eyes closed for just 2 more minutes and visualized yourself moving through your day?
Going inward can help us remember that outside factors will always be at play, but we’re not at their whim. This isn’t about visualizing a fantasy or the best day ever – this is about picturing yourself moving through the day and showing up the way you want to show up.
When we can picture what we want our day to look like, we can then take intentional action to make it happen.
I truly hope these Visioning tips inspire you to use them during this time. Remember, you were born with an innate power to create change. You are a leader in your life and business who can create your future, instead of allowing your future to happen to you.