Striving or Embracing?

I love the energy of the New Year and the positive messaging that is flooding my LinkedIn and Facebook feeds.  Isn’t it interesting that at the New Year we wish one another a Happy New Year?  What if we had that same sentiment of well wishes throughout the year?  What if we had the same positive, non-stoppable attitude and self-discipline as we do at the first of the year?  Things would be vastly differently in all of our lives if these attitudes prevailed for 365 days instead of 30 days or less.  How do we hang onto the positive energy?

I’ve learned that more often than not resolutions don’t stick and that goal setting plans gets dusty.  For years I’ve gone through days of goal setting, creating deadlines and planning that would make some weary just talking about it.  Although goal setting can be beneficial, for me it had become more of a chore instead of an exciting activity to look forward to each year.  That is, until I added an element that had been missing from the process…Feelings!  Isn’t it bazaar that most of us create goals without any thought to how we want to feel when we obtain that goal?

One of the most strategic, creative, freeing and utterly brilliant questions I’ve asked myself is, “How do you want to feel?” Once I turned my focus toward how I wanted to feel and understood what I needed to do to feel the way I truly desired to feel, the idea of goal setting became exciting again.  I had new energy.  The process became completely different than it had in the past.  Instead of creating a long page of text and measurements, which often made me feel heavy with responsibility and guilty if I didn’t measure up to my long list of goals, it became much more emotionally based and freeing. 

This new process is about embracing the possibilities instead of striving and pushing.  When I’m pushing and striving and striving and pushing I grow weary.  The goals seem too hard, too big, too much!  When I’m focused on having the types of feelings I want to have in my life, it’s about embracing the moments, the possibilities and the success of living a life you want instead of a life about measurement.

Here’s what I did and you can too:

1.  Determine your values.  Here’s a link to worksheet to help you with this process.

• Page 1:  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/477522366714983661/ 
• Page 2:  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/477522366714983650/

2.  Identify how you truly want to feel.

• Ask, “How do I want to feel?”  Repeat the question 5 times to uncover your true desired feelings.
• Ask, “When have a felt this way before?”  “What do I do now that creates those feelings?”

3.  Create Vision Board. 

Now that you have clarity about your values and feelings, you are ready to create your vision board to guide your activities, choices and all that you desire.   

You will need:

• A large stack of magazines.
• An 8x10 or larger sheet of card stock
• Scissors
• Glue
• The understanding that there are no limits, no right or wrong choices; the only guide is your passion, values and feelings.  Use these to steer you towards what your heart and mind desires.

Begin your vision board by tearing out the images and words in the magazines that speak to you.  The images should evoke a feeling of excitement, tug at your emotions, cause your heartbeat to increase, prompt you to say, “WOW!”  The images only need to speak to you; no approval is needed from anyone but you.  The images may represent something to you that is entirely different than what the picture conveys to others.  What is important is that the image conveys how you want to feel and expresses what you want to achieve in your life.
 

Assemble your images on your sheet of card stock in a way that makes your heart sing with possibilities.

Your vision board is now ready to post in a place that you will see daily.  Your vision board is a work in progress and can be updated as often as you like. 

I encourage you to explore this new process.  Find out your answers to the question, “How do I want to feel?” and “What do I want/need to do to experience my desired feelings?”  Discover or re-discover your values.  Get creative.  Let go of boundaries and measurements. 

Let’s resolve the feelings of guilt and needing to stop doing something and instead 

embrace the possibilities for 2015!

Peggy's Vision Board

I’d love to hear from you and learn about your thoughts and possibilities.  Leave me a comment below to start the conversation.
 

Increase your "Stick-to-it-ness"

What happens when we decide to make a change? Most of the time we get really excited about the possibilities, we're filled with enthusiasm for the results we're going to reach.

Our belief is high and we know, that this time, this time for sure things are going to be different. We're going to accomplish our goals. . . and then a few more days go by and what happens?

Our enthusiasm is but a small hope, instead of a firm belief. Our focus gets blurry and we start to fall into the same-oh, same-oh routine.

I encourage you to increase your "stick-to-it-ness" - You can make the changes your want, you just need to stick it out day by day and follow through with your plan.

You got this!

Get Sticky!

Want to know how to increase your chance for success by 33%?

1. Write down your goals,
2. Share them with a friend
3. Send weekly updates to that friend

For more insight and encouragement check out TriRiverU Facebook page where you can meet new friends to share your dreams and increase your chance for success!

What’s your vision for 2013?

Have you made a New Year’s resolution? Have you let your creativity soar and created a vision board? Or, are you sitting in the land of good intentions waiting for your life to change by wishing it so? However you answered those questions, I have good news for you! You can make 2013 a year to remember. It all starts with a vision. It’s the vision that will make all the difference.

“Vision is the art of seeing the invisible.” Jonathan Swift

Most of us know what we want deep down inside of us; we just lack the belief that our dream could become a reality. Think back to when you were a child, what did you want to be? I challenge you to consider the possibilities for your life. Just for a moment remove all the barriers that rise up in your mind. Push away the negative voices, silence the self-doubt that tells you that you aren’t good enough, smart enough or talented enough. Imagine a vision for your life based on your dreams and desires. Imagine your vision with vivid detail, passion and belief. Then imagine it as if it is now a reality. This is the essence where visions are made and dreams are realized. Once a vision is cast firmly in your mind, once you can see it, feel it, touch it, and describe it, the possibility of it becoming a reality is only a matter of time.

I had the opportunity to lead a visioning exercise with a group of outstanding administrative professionals from Microsoft. Their assignment was to create a vision statement for their administrative professional community. Here’s a few of the vision statements they created:

“Provide excellent support to our managers and the team by mastering the internal tools, efficiently responding to and anticipating needs, and leveraging each admin's strengths.”

“Be pillars of the organization by enhancing the productivity of all employees and the ability to meet or exceed organizational goals through continuous support, bolstering morale, and cross-group collaboration.”

“Providing extraordinary customer service through teamwork and positive influence.”

“Leveraging our strengths to achieve operational excellence.
• Collaboration and Teamwork
• Respect and Communication and Transparency
• Subject Matter Expert and Sharing Best Practices”

"Create an environment rich in - trust, feedback / communication, respect, and development."

"Be innovative. Be impactful while providing seamless administrative support. GSD/CYA. (get shit done, cover your ass). :)"

"We have proactively to committed exceptional results and maintaining high integrity in our day to day roles."

"We will live our values of being highly trusted, accountable, consistent, dependable and knowledgeable through our support and guidance. We will build, cultivate and mature successful relationships with internal and external partners and serve as the central hub of the organization...creating a fun and positive environment."

"Delivering superior service to the team by being proactive and resourceful with a "can-do" attitude this furthering success and goals of Microsoft."

"We kick butt so you can to by providing seamless services for superb results."

"Delivering quality support to the organization by partnering and executing on our excellent services."

"We exhibit open communication, foster a cohesive team with a high level of trust and are proactive with the teams' needs, wants and goals."

I challenge you to put this exercise to work for you and create your own personal vision statement. It really is the vision for your life that will make all the difference.

“We are limited, not by our abilities, but by our vision.”