Excerpt from Living the Perfect Life:A Spiritual Inventory for Self-Mastery by Cynthia Morin
Chapter 5 - Becoming Visionary
So far in our exploration of the Perfect Life and Self Mastery, we have examined our values, our ability to make sound choices based on our values, and being congruent with actions, thoughts and deeds. And you have begun to look at the environments of your life to see where they support or distract you, what you want to expand or eliminate in your inner and outer surroundings.
In this chapter, we will look at what motivates and inspires us to live a great life. For me, it is the vision of my world that deepens my commitment to a full life and inspires me to give more of my self. So rather than examine our goals and life purpose, we will jump to what I call a higher level and explore being visionary, perhaps in a little different way that you might expect.
The search for a ‘life purpose’ or mission in life has been a stumbling block for many it seems. Some fortunate ones just seem to know what it is they are meant to do and be in life. For the rest of us, it is elusive, ever-changing or confusing, and we flounder around wondering why we can’t find ‘it’ or why it did not fulfill us as we thought.
The truth may be that your purpose or mission in life is simply the set of values you worked on. Love, joy, abundance, community, compassion – whatever were included in your top 5 may indicate a real sense of purpose that unfolds in whatever you involve yourself. (Your values list may change from time to time but there is typically one or two that will always appear on your top 10.) We are all aware that over the last few decades the ideal of a single career pursuit has turned into a series of careers, most people changing direction in their work pursuits 3-5 times over a life. Yet, you might notice that there is a thread: a value that threads through what you have chosen to do in terms of work or service to others.
Well, goals may still work for you. Goals are typically used to push you toward some final result in the future. The difficulty I find is that there is always a sense of lack involved – identification with things not being here yet, a lot of future thinking that takes over from being present and grateful for what is now. A vision on the other hand, will draw you more into what is already important now. It is not really about a future thinking change but about being inspired by what is already happening even in a small way. It is about potentiality.
And yes, the use of a life purpose can seem to be empowering, but it can also create a trap. You begin to identify so much with the purpose that without it you don’t know what to do or be. The visioning process is not about self-empowerment but rather about inspiration. To be inspired is to draw in, to breathe the fullness of what is. From that fullness we are invited to create, to breathe out new and expansive ideas and expressions. Vision is your ability to see a bigger picture in the world of potentiality and know that you are a part of something really great that is unfolding in the world.
You may be noticing that I have not directed you to write out any actual goals! I suggest that you forego (or postpone at least) writing out your goals (which may or may not serve to motivate you over the long haul). Nor will I ask you to write a profound life purpose statement (we can rely on your values list). Instead I am recommending that you look at your vision as inspiration for becoming all you can be.
How to be visionary?
A vision may seem to be about the future. Yet, it is more about the present—what is happening today. The best visions are indeed about the Now, otherwise they would be merely dreams or fantasies. To go about identifying your visions, you simply identify or recognize a current condition, trend or event that really captures your attention and then EXTRAPOLATE from it. If you have been noticing that society has started making progress in a certain area and you can determine (by facts or even intuition) that the forces behind the progress will likely continue, then you can easily see the vision of this progress continuing until it becomes universal or has reached completion in some way.
A vision that I have is that everyone can find ways to express their creative expressions (art, music, dance, writing, inventions, etc) and be valued (and rewarded) for their creativity. This is really so simple and obvious to me that it often seems like a given and I forget that it is a vision. But every time I discover a new fact or statistic about creativity in the workplace for example, or meet a person is who succeeding at their creative expression I am thrilled and inspired. Yes, it is happening, I say to myself and I am uplifted by it. It draws me into the vision of a better world for all and I become more expressive and more capable of assisting others with their creative dreams.
All my life I have been involved in some aspect of education, teaching, training, sharing knowledge and skills with others. Learning is a high value for me so I am drawn to explore new ideas and skills myself. But more important I have always had a vision about education. Though there is much to criticize about our organized educational systems, I still carry my vision and look for clues, new trends, and new accomplishments in the area of learning. Years ago I became fascinated about the computer, and later the world of the internet, primarily because I saw the trends pointing in the direction of new potentials for education and continuous learning accessible for all. Yes there is still much to criticize about computers and the internet! But I continue to be inspired by MY vision of what it can become and what I see positive about it now.
What do you see happening in our world today that excites you and brings a sense of potential? The world is a mess if we look at all that seems wrong but where do you see shifts happening that point in the direction of your vision? Can you spot trends toward a more peaceful world community, to more open dialogue between people, to better parenting models, to more enlightened health care for all? In what ways does the world around you reflect back to you the vision that you have for mankind?
One of my clients mentioned recently that she and her husband keep a gratitude journal and both write in on a regular basis. I suspect that this gratitude journal could easily be called a Vision Journal. The things that we are most grateful for are the things that support our vision of greatness, that support our values of life. If you would like to experiment—I am a big believer in journals of any form – you might try writing some entries in your existing journal or begin a new journal with the idea of acknowledging the perfection you see day to day. Write what you read, saw, heard, learned about that supports your vision.
-use this space to write your vision-
My Vision: