Vision for the Future

Today, I scheduled an unscheduled session for the group. Creating vision boards. We have just wrapped up creating vision statements for each area of our life and noting the things we want to realize for ourselves.

Now, when I think about vision boards it just makes me smile. When I left the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a group of my colleagues created a vision board for me as a final act of appreciation. These are professional women who don’t necessary believe in the process of visualization, so it was this act of unselfishness that touched me so much. The funny thing was that they called it an “art project”, as almost an avoidance of what the process really symbolizes. It just makes me snicker to envision this group of women with glue sticks, an empty canvas and cutting out inspiring quotes and pictures to make the collage that represented my contribution to our important work. The end result offers daily inspiration.

A vision board is nothing more than creating a visual representation of what we want in life. The whole premise is that when we commit to something and when we evoke emotion based on our beliefs that we can get what we want…it attracts those things to us. The law of the Universe is that like attracts like. Don’t laugh – its quantum physics. It’s really that simple.

Only four of us are able to make it today. As folks walked through their boards, it was fun to hear what they wanted for themselves and to see their excitement. Ironically, one person confesses that she told her husband that we were doing “a girl’s art project.” Though I know she will need to confess when she arrives home with two amazing pieces of artwork, it makes me think about how we can all get more authentic and comfortable in our journey. Are we willing to shed the perceptions of what other people think, and follow what we are called to do?

This is an ironic thought because I am stuck this month – big time - with my writing. I wonder if I am being authentic to my true calling. The chapter topic this month is purpose and I realize this feels too big right now to write about. Maybe it’s because I feel stuck. This is evident in my effort to finish my board today. I am feeling some dissonance in the direction my work is taking on the corporate side, and how this dovetails with my purpose. My calling. Since I am stuck, my writing is waiting for me to catch up. My vision board will need to wait until I can get clear on what I want, I guess.

Am I being authentic to what I am being called to do? How will I know?