The Importance of Vision

  
Can you see beyond who and what your boundaries are today? It’s easy to get so caught up in the day-to-day conditions of our lives that we forget to imagine.  This weekend was a great reminder of this for me. 

I happened to have a very good weekend. One that was pretty much focused on the task(s) at hand. There was some writing to catch up on, workouts at the gym, a tree to be bought and decorated, and some shopping. I was very present with all of it. But it was not the weekend that I had imagined having. 

With considerable rain forecast, my plans were my workouts, writing and creating a vision for a “bold action”, and grading end of semester work for my class.  I was very invigorated when Friday night I started working on this vision. I felt positive. I felt jazzed. I….went to sleep and failed to maintain the momentum. 

Now let me come back to my workouts and vision. Four or five months ago I signed up at a gym, got a trainer, and broke my foot. But what led me to the first couple was the work of Jon Gabriel and the importance of visualization in weight loss. As part of a far more complex process that I’m going to describe, Gabriel states the importance of getting a picture of you at your ideal weight and using it every morning and night to see your body in that way. By seeing your body in that fit, healthy state, it is also easy to visualize doing the things and eating the foods that your ideal body would. 

So far, it has worked for me and I’ve lost almost 30 lbs without feeling like I’m cheating myself out of anything. I feel better and feel better about myself. But there are challenges. The plateaus come when I feel frustrated. And because I don’t deprive myself of anything I truly want, there are times that I eat more than I should or may be not the best food. 

These are the times for me that keeping the vision is the most important. If I allow myself to be completely caught up in the moment, if I allow myself to forget my vision, at those times I’m caught in the presence of what is. And while what is isn’t bad and I enjoy it, I’m finding it to be very positive when I live within the vision of where I am going. Kind of a reality meets fantasy mashup where I’m the winner. 

I haven’t quite created my vision for my bold move, but I’m working on it. I see it as being powerful and attractive. I see it being deeply compelling. I see it…but I don’t yet. It’s fuzzy and could use some work. But if it works for my body, how powerful can creating and living a vision be for another part of my life? 

I always forget that I have actually used this at other times in my life.  Like when I saw myself finishing my PhD in four years, and against the odds, I did. It works!  Now I just have to see what it is I’m looking for. 

How about you? Do you have a vision you’re moving towards? I’d love for you to tell me about it!