Dear Diary. Today is December 31, 2020 and I am…
How many of you are already tired of hearing puns around 2020 and vision? Yea? Me too. :) That said, today’s post is all about creating your clear vision for 2020 so that it can be your best year yet!
When January rolls around, what do you do to prep for an awesome new year?
Do you reflect on the previous year and spend time recognizing growth, stumbling blocks, and take a moment to be grateful for all that you experienced?
Do you set goals, resolutions or intentions?
Do you create a vision for the life you’d like to create for yourself over the next year?
Personally, I do all three. Last week I blogged about the top ten things I was grateful for in 2019, and I am currently in the process of setting intentions and creating a vision for the life and business I’d like to create for myself in 2020.
You’ll notice I said intentions, not resolutions. For those of you that listened to the first episode of my podcast, you already know why.
For those of you that didn’t, in a nutshell, it’s because I see intentions as guidance to help me live a better and more fulfilling life; whereas resolutions are very binary (you either keep it or you don’t), and don’t necessarily take into account the long term vision or your “why.” That said - if you’re a resolution-er and it works for you, keep doing you! I’m just sharing why I personally set intentions instead.
As you may have read in last week’s post, 2019 was a year of complete transition for me. Because of this, I didn’t have any concrete goals. My vision and my intention was to become more in touch with who I was, with the feelings and emotions that I wanted to feel, no matter how those chose to manifest themselves.
That worked for me in 2019; it kept me safe as I played out the last six months of my corporate career, it allowed me to heal in those first three months after I stepped away, and allowed me to step into some amazing opportunities as I discovered who I was as a business owner and a coach the last three months of the year.
While that worked for me in 2019, in 2020, I’d like to become more grounded again. I love structure, so while throwing spaghetti against the wall has been fun, here are some of the intentions that I’d like to have guide me in 2020.
Become more grounded while remaining open to opportunities.
Become more strategic with how I spend my time.
Approach life from a place of abundance.
Empower people by making the concepts of Mindset and Energy Leadership more attainable.
Live a more active lifestyle, through walking, hiking, running, yoga, and more.
Live with mindful intention.
Clarity is still needed around what I actually mean around these things, which will come to fruition as I complete my vision board and my vision journal with these things in mind.
why visioning is important
Whether you believe in the frequency illusion, Lawrence Lippitt’s Preferred Futuring concept, or the law of attraction; one thing is true: what we focus on expands.
Why is this? So basically, the non-scientific Jenn version of this, is that our brain is imploded with hundreds of thousands of images and data per second, so its self-selects what you care about, makes assumptions, and filters out the rest. So, that means that we need to consciously tell our brain what to focus on. Once we tell our brain what to focus on, through selective attention and confirmation bias, we begin to recognize those things more frequently. So if we start to recognize and focus on the positive aspects of the life we want to live and create for ourselves, the more likely we’ll realize that opportunities to create that life are right in front of us.
Visioning Exercise: Let’s put this theory into practice really quickly. Grab a scrap piece of paper and a pen. You’ll need this in a second.
Step 1: Look at the below picture and make a mental list of everything that is black. Don’t write anything down yet. Just create a mental list of 7-10 things that are black. Once you have your mental list of 7-10 black things, scroll down below the picture to continue. (Don’t scroll past the picture until you have your list of black things, it will ruin the exercise.)
Create a mental list of everything you see that is black!
Okay, do you have your mental list of 7-10 black items? Scroll down for the next step.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Step 2: Without looking back at the photo, take out your paper and pen and write down all the things that you remember that were blue.
Wait a minute you may be saying, you asked me to look for black items, not blue ones!
I bet you can remember many black items, but not too many blue ones. Why is that? Well, simply, it’s because you weren’t looking for them. You told your brain to look for black, so it ignored every other color to help you focus on what it thought was important. We see what we tell our brain to look for. Crazy right?
Creating your 2020 Intentions and Vision
So now that you understand that visioning is one of the most powerful mindset tricks out there, and understand that visioning allows you to transform your words and goals into something you can see, touch and experience; let’s get started on creating your own vision for 2020.
As you think about your own intentions for 2020, think about the areas you’d like to focus on. You may want to pull out a journal and use the following areas as prompts and take the time to define what each one truly means to you, and the aspects of each that may or may not be important to you. There may be other areas that you may want to explore as well, these are just suggestions to get you started.
Health/Aging
Self-Acceptance
Mindfulness and Spiritual Awareness
Professional Success
Personal Development
Fun & Enjoyment
Innovation
Happiness
Fulfillment
Social Network (Friends, Family & Community)
Once you have clarity around what these things mean to you; you can start to create your vision of what they look like for you. Keep your journal out for the next exercise.
One Year From Now Exercise: Envision yourself at the end of 2020. Assuming no roadblocks, fears or barriers, take a few moments to create a detailed description of the life you’ve created for yourself and are living. Consider the thoughts emotions and experiences, you’ll be having, your profession, your health, your social circle, your personal life and, your family.
As you complete this exercise, write as if you’re already living this reality. Start every sentence with I am…
Dear Diary. Today is December 31, 2020, and I am living a life greater than I ever dreamed possible.
I want you to hold this vision and the emotions you felt while completing these exercises close as you set your intentions for 2020, and as you step into the new year. I want you to hold on to this vision and the emotions you want to create and your intentions so tightly that every morning you wake up and think about them; every morning you wake up and you see them in clear focus. If you live with intention, and stay in the present, I know that come January 1, 2021 you won’t be one of the millions who will sigh and say “Well, hindsight is 2020!”
If you’d like to take this one step further, you have a few options:
Create a vision board. So that every time you look back at your board for inspiration the feelings will come back to you. This is the true secret to manifesting your goals. There is no right or wrong way to create a vision board. Using the feelings and emotions you experienced during the last exercise, flip through the magazines and cut out whatever will inspire you to feel the same way and to help you envision and manifest that reality every time you look at your board. Everyone is different, some people like it filled with pictures, others like it filled with words, some like a combination of both.
Use this free visioning journal to bring your vision into focus and to start to identify steps you can take to make your vision come to fruition.
Are you ready to crush 2020? Are you ready to listen to that little voice inside that says you’re capable of more? Are you ready to live greater?
If you’re ready to:
have your own breakthrough
beat the burnout
clarify and align with your core values
put the theories of energy leadership into practice
become fearless
live a life created for you, by you…
then head over to the work with me tab to schedule your complimentary coaching exploration call today!
As a coach, I’m not allowed to make promises. But I am very confident that when you look back at the end of 2020, you’ll be grateful you did.
PS: Never miss a blog post or a podcast episode! Sign up to receive these in your inbox every Tuesday!
PPS: Some of the links may be affiliate links, meaning that I may receive a small stipend or benefit in return for using them. I only link to relevant products that you may find interesting, or that I personally use. I will never recommend a product that I do not personally believe in.