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The 3 Ingredients that Empower Your Vision

The 3 Ingredients that Empower Your Vision

by Linda-Ann Stewart

What is your deepest dream? It could be to change a habit, develop a skill or achieve success in your life or business. It’s a dream that you have control over and can accomplish. The next question is: Are you taking action on it and headed in that direction? If not, then there’s something that’s holding you back. If you are taking action, but keep finding yourself having to start over, then there’s an element missing that’s creating the loop.

Success rarely happens by accident. It happens by design. Even when chance seems to be involved, there was thought and energy directed towards a dream first. As Seneca, the Roman philosopher, said, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” When you prepare for success, you know a break when it appears. If you aren’t ready, then you won’t be available when the possibility shows up, and you might not even recognize it.

Hand holding seedlingSuccess is a lot like a garden. It takes thought, attention and consideration. For instance, you could just throw some seeds onto the ground, forget about them and hope for the best. But for your seeds to sprout and grow, you have to make sure they have the best conditions in which to thrive.

When you have a deep desire to grow and sent out roots in your life, there are three main areas you have to address to achieve your dream. Each of these is vital to the success of your venture. If any of them is missing or hasn’t been created, then you’re unlikely to succeed and your seeds will never have an opportunity to grow.

Vision

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” Lewis Carroll

You may have a dream, but no clear vision of making it real. Not only do you have to know exactly what you want, it must be personal for you and compelling enough inspire you to fulfill this dream. If you have no vision of where you’re going, you’ll just float, at the mercy of outer circumstances. The Law of Attraction needs a clear vision to be able to use as a mold and pattern. Without a vision, it will simply use the average of whatever you’re focusing on. To fulfill your dream, decide on exactly what you want to plant, and then plant the seeds for that bush, flower or desire

Mindset

“The outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to reflect their inner beliefs.” James Allen

This isn’t just about positive thinking, though that’s vital to success. Mindset also includes your beliefs and attitudes about your vision and yourself. Are you afraid you won’t achieve it or maybe that you will? In addition, you need to have incentive and motivation to stay the course. How badly do you want your dream? The Law of Attraction needs you to keep your attention on your vision, so you water it, fertilize it with positive thoughts and weed out any negative beliefs about it.

Plan

“Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress.” Alfred A. Montapert

Without a plan, you could run around in circles, getting no closer to your dream. You could mistake marking items off a to-do list for moving in a specific direction. Also, who or what are making the decisions for you? For example, are other people, crises or what’s immediate determining your priorities? If this is the case, you simply react to events, without making deliberate choices or thinking things through. Are the steps you want to take catered to your needs? If not, then you will avoid taking them. The Law of Attraction needs you to put your energy into what’s important to you. Your actions make sure you schedule watering and weeding, so that your seed has the best setting in which to grow.

If any of these hasn’t been attended to, then sheer chance may result in a few seeds sprouting. But you won’t be able to depend on whether they will or not. With no vision, you might plant dandelion seeds when you want tomatoes. Lacking the right mindset means you let weeds crowd out the plants you want. If you don’t plan to water regularly, then your seeds won’t have the necessary moisture to flourish.

When you address each of these areas, and follow through on your plan, then you’re empowering your vision. You’re giving it the mental, emotional and physical energy it needs to germinate, sprout and grow. By staying on track and paying attention to what you’re doing, you’re taking charge and giving your dream the fertilizer it needs to bloom.

Affirmation:
I now establish what I really want in my life. And I realize that I deserve to have my dream. The Universe wants for me what I want for myself. I decide to take the actions I need to begin moving in that direction. The Universe supports my endeavor and I attract whatever I need to fulfill my desire.

Watch my Monthly Mindset Coaching Tip video If You’re Stuck, Check These 3 Elements that accompanies this article.

Avoid These 7 Traps That Sabotage Your Dreams

Avoid These 7 Traps That Sabotage Your Dreams

Sunset Crater, Flagstaff AZDo you have a dream or a vision that you’re not actively pursuing? Maybe you’re not taking action on it or you’re chronically preparing to start. If so, you’re not alone. Self-sabotage is an insidious, subversive and subtle act. It gets hidden amongst the busyness of your life. And it may even seem completely reasonable that you haven’t been able to make any progress toward your dream. But there are unseen forces at work within you that are holding you back.

Here are 7 ways that you undermine yourself and steps you can take to overcome these obstacles.

1. Lack of clarity. You only have a fuzzy idea of what you want. This isn’t very motivating and it won’t impel you to take action. When you don’t have a precise idea of your direction, you won’t take any steps. Specific ideas about your goals allow you to take specific steps towards achieving them, which leads to better results. It also gives the Law of Attraction an explicit pattern to follow.

2. No plan. You may want to go with the flow and resist the structure of a plan. But when you choose to let things unfold in this way, you’re going to be blown around by every circumstance that presents itself. There’s a saying, “When you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” In your busy life, if something doesn’t get prioritized, it doesn’t get done. Create an outline of a plan that serves you, so that the Law of Attraction can draw to you what you need. Your plan should include room for the unexpected.

3. Not working your plan. You’ve created a plan, put it in a drawer and gotten involved in your busy life. The immediate and the urgent have taken precedence. Or you may be dealing with the “shiny object syndrome.” Other enticing options have taken you off track and gotten you nowhere. This just creates confusion for the Universe, as it doesn’t know what you want. It’s ok to make course corrections periodically, but not every day. Assess your plan and get back to working it.

4. Not making your dream a priority. You have a plan, but you let other things get in the way. This may be day-to-day chores or plain old inertia. It’s simply easier to fall back into old habits than it is to clear space to work for your dream. Unless you decide that your dream is important, you’ll never achieve it. And the Universe won’t make it a priority, either. Focus on what you want, schedule taking action and following through.

5. Seeking approval. You’re trying to live up to other peoples’ expectations of you. And you put others’ agendas ahead of your own wants, needs and desires. For the most part, you don’t need their approval nor to meet their expectations. What you want is as important as what they do. Learn to say, “No,” when their expectations conflict with what you want. The Universe approves of you when you do.

6. Perfectionism. You won’t move forward until everything is perfect. This is an unrealistic and unreachable goal. Perfectionism comes from fear that you’ll make a mistake. Of course, you’re going to make mistakes. That’s how you learn and make course corrections. The Universe doesn’t expect your efforts to be flawless. Repeat to yourself, “Progress, not perfection.” As long as you have a vision and the beginnings of a plan, you can make some headway. You can build the rest as you go along.

7. Procrastination. This behavior is the worst of the offenders. It probably sinks more dreams than anything else. Either you put off starting or you put off uncomfortable or unfamiliar tasks that are necessary to your vision. Out of fear or rebellion, you chronically avoid making a decision or taking an action until the last minute. The Law of Attraction follows your lead and delays any good coming your way. Take some action, no matter how small and build momentum. One small step at a time is all you need to do to make progress.

Self-sabotage is an attempt to keep you safely confined in your comfort zone, so you don’t have to stretch or be anxious. Your subconscious is trying to protect you from the disappointment or rejection that you experienced when you were younger. Unfortunately, this strategy doesn’t support your dream or who you are now.

When you recognize that you’re sabotaging yourself, and that it’s a function of some outdated attempt at self-preservation, you can make changes. It will be uncomfortable at first, as all change is. And you’ll be tempted to step back into old patterns. But you have the power, wisdom and understanding to take charge and shift your world. Open the door to your dreams and step through.

Affirmation:
I realize the self-sabotage is an outdated attempt to keep me safe in a world that no longer exists. I now recognize any ways in which I undermine myself. It’s powerful to bring them out into the light so that I can see they are no longer needed. I now let go of what no longer serves me, and now establish new thoughts, beliefs and behaviors that support my dreams.

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