Integrating Vision

Greetings fellow travellers I hope this finds you well!

We are now post Equinox so it is time to take what has come to you in your Vision Quest and integrate it into your new reality.

Let’s walk through the steps.

Firstly, remember that our key task is to lead an Intentional life – to shift out of mindless reactiveness and to apply our Will to this task.

In this task Context becomes important because of the power of Context to change meaning. If I suggest to you for example that you should go sit in a circle of Polenta for 24 hours with nothing but a blanket and a bottle of water you would most likely tell me that I am crazy! However, if I establish the why for you and create a powerful Context of meaning that speaks to your deeper life desires then you may still call me crazy but you might begin to consider the benefits of such an action.

A Vision Quest – whether you did it by sitting in circle, taking some time out to consider your life goals, or going through a process of readings and exercises – is the act of attempting to clarify a deeper Context for your life and hence give you the opportunity to live an intentional and authentic life.

To integrate what you have received in your Vision Quest I would suggest two key structures – both of which I have elaborated on in previous posts. The first structure is the 5 elements of the Ideal Self that Richard Boyatzis proposes:-

#1 Purpose – what do you think you are doing here anyway? Can you distil your thoughts into a brief sentence?

#2 Values – what do you actually believe are the most important behavioural values and principles in your life? This will allow you to answer the question of whether or not you are a good person.

#3 Philosophy – how do you believe that life works? This will allow you to answer the question of whether or not you are living a good life.

#4 Self Identity – what’s the story you tell about who you are? are your actions aligned to this?

#5 Social Identity – what’s the story you tell about who you are in a social setting? Whether that be family, work or community.

These 5 elements will provide you with an aspirational Vision. The important bit here – which you may think is obvious – is that you need to want this from a heart based perspective – that is you have to have emotional desire to create this – not just think about it from a logical rational head based perspective. This may be challenging if your head and heart have conflicting views about what you should be doing with your life – and my advice here is that short term the head may win but long term the heart will always win.

Next bit is recognising that you cannot be aspirational if you cannot get the basic foundation things ordered in your life. This is like trying to build a fantastic house on a shaky weak foundation – the house may look great but will soon fall down.

So yes – it really does all start with you! So this means addressing the 5 key elements – Physical, Emotional, Mental, Material, Spiritual. For each of these 5 elements ask:-

#1 Where am I at now out of 10?

#2 If I was 10/10 what would that look like?

#3 If I was 10/10 what would that feel like? Remember that we want to engage the heart and the emotional self.

#4 Why do you want this? again emotional not rational

#5 If you want to BE like this what do you need to habitually DO?

Out of this process you will get an Ideal weekly routine to manage self.

So – now you should have the 5 elements of the Ideal Self and the 5 Foundational elements – so let’s put it into a plan for our Life Project.

First – where are we at?

We just did Vision Quest and we have just started a new 13 moon cycle around the Sun – so lets start big picture and break it down. We just did Vision and ideally we don’t want to revisit Vision - apart from a check in half way through in September – until March 2027 – so key here is we want to be present and enjoy the Journey.

Timeframe therefore when considering the 5 elements of the Ideal Self and the 5 Foundational elements is March 2027 – in other words note that it is not a forever thing – this is an iterative process for becoming comfortable in uncertainty and engaging with life.

So the first bit in your intentional calendar is March 2027 – Vision Quest.

Half way through the 13 moon cycle – so September Equinox – you are going to check in with Vision and see whether or not you need to course correct.

Next is the two Solstices – this is the longest day of the year and the longest night of the year.

Think about this in terms of light and the effect that it has on us. If you are in the Southern hemisphere the June Solstice will be the shortest day – the most darkness and it is at this time that you may go most deeply within the self but it will also trigger a time of changing direction and getting ready to come out of the self. So in terms of your life project you need to put an entry in to explore these deep feelings and define what it is that you want to grow in the world over the following 6 months as the light returns.

For the December Solstice the opposite is true – this is the time of the greatest light and will herald a time of celebration. Your task here is to of course celebrate and then to also consider the change of direction and the process of now going within.

So, now you have the overall Project timeline and the 4 pivot points – which are the two equinoxes and the two solstices.

Next let’s move into the 13 moon cycles.

So remember why we are doing all of this – if we define the Ideal Self and Foundational Self – and that’s all we do then it is a static or fixed concept – but we all know that we are living in a rapidly changing dynamic environment – so our fixed thinking would be out of alignment with the nature of the environment. To fix this we need to make our Ideal Self and Foundational Self dynamic concepts – and the easy to do this is to embed circular feedback loops so our process becomes iterative.

Remember also that our two super powers are gratitude and curiosity so we need to consciously engage with these.

So we can play with the moon cycles here – every new moon we can check in as follows:-

#1 What’s working? and what am I doing right?

#2 What am I grateful for?

#3 Is there any thing I want to let go of? For example bad habits and behaviour

#4 Draw a line in the sand and consciously let the past go

#5 What’s my key intention for the coming month?

Your context for all of these things is the 5 elements of the Ideal Self and the 5 Foundational elements.

Next let’s break it down even further into a weekly feedback loop – remember that in uncertainty structure gives us freedom – so this is play not control.

At the end of every week create a habit around reflective practice – this could be every Friday afternoon, every Sunday morning – whatever works for you.

Reflective practice looks like this:-

#1 What am I doing right? what’s working?

#2 What challenges or blocks have I got?

#3 What ideas have I got for playing with things that might shift this?

#4 What’s my key Intent for next week?

Then last circle is Daily Practice – 3 key elements

#1 Morning Intention Setting – some activation activity – could be meditation, walking etc – then ask How do you want to BE today?

#2 Midday Check in – am I on track or off track with my Intention – if off track laugh and reset.

#3 End of the day – what am I grateful for? What did I do right today?

When you have all of these elements in place – and you can set this up as diary remainders, charts on your wall (even AI!!) – whatever works for you – then your task is just to run your system – get it?

Remembering the Kookaburra whose role is the bringer of the morning light and to remind humans to enjoy life and to embrace the joy of laughter.

In peace and love always.

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