Last summer my wife and I were at the dog park with our beagle / corgi / terrier mix (yes, she’s very cute and energetic). When we arrived, we were the only ones there, but as we were finishing up the first loop I looked across the field to the entrance and said, “Oh, good another dog is here” and pointed toward the gate. My wife responded, “That’s the trash can,” adding as kindly as she could given the circumstances, “are you really able to drive without your glasses?” Soon after I made an appointment with my optometrist and now wear my glasses all the time. Having a clear vision of where you are and where you’re going is very important, whether it’s to see across the dog park or to have an idea of where you want your life to be going.
The first couple of weeks on medication were pretty rough. My focus has been an issue for a few months, but taking the medication in the morning was, in my own words “making me stupid” throughout much of the day. Late last week I gradually shifted the time I took it until the evening and my focus returned to pretty much what it was before I started on medication. So it’s not great, but it’s better.
About a week and half ago, approximately a week into starting on medication, I sat down at my computer at work in the morning and thought “I have no idea what I’m doing.” Thankfully, I’m a pretty organized person so my systems were there to back me up. I opened Omnifocus, pulled out my planner where I had my daily, weekly, and monthly goals and it was clear as to at least what tasks I should be doing. Having such a system may seem a bit much for some people, but when your life is not running smoothly, when a health issue arises, an unexpected emergency comes up, or somebody / something just throws a wrench in your day, being able to see both the big picture and the minutia can be pretty damn useful. The time that I put into maintaining this has certainly shown its worth throughout all of this. My vision for where I’m at, let alone where I’m going hasn’t exactly been 20/20.
Even as I try to refocus on where I’m at, I haven’t stopped looking at where I’m going. Over the weekend I watched two video which related to having a clear picture of where you’re going.
In this short video (about 6 minutes) called “There’s No One Path”, Chase Jarvis commented that “if you don’t write your own script, somebody else will write it for you.” In other words, if you don’t figure out where you want to go, what you want out of life, and plan and take action to get there, other people’s priorities and desires are going to take control of your life. This fits with the advise I often hear these days, and that I do follow, plan your own priorities for the day before you read email from someone who wants you to make their priorities your’s.
After that I watched a video by Brendon Burchard (see below) about what he refers to as “3 ‘I Am’ Success Beliefs.” They are:
1 – Congruence – Trying to be my best and true self
2 – Capability – Believing that I can find a way through a situation (I already know a solution, I can learn something, I can ask for help, etc.)
3 – Worthiness – I am worthy of success, of having a good life, or happiness.
So, live true to your values, principles, and goals, while believing both that you can do this and that you’re totally worth it.
I set big and small goals based on the vision that I’ve laid out for myself, while trying to act in alignment with my Manifesto (which is based on my values and principles). Most days I know that I’m worth it, and I’m working on believing in my capability.
On a final note about this, I ordered a bracelet through the MyIntent project with two words on it – Love and Vision. Love to remind me both of the line in my Manifesto to “Love fully my family, my friends, the stranger, and myself” and to remember all of the people in my life who I know love me. Vision to remind me that I have a vision for the life that I want and I need to take steps every day, even small steps, to get there.
