Creative Compass: Stop! Don’t Start Where You Are

I am honoured to be a regular contributor to the wonderful Wish Studio. Mindy has brought together an amazing group of inspiring women to share their wisdom and stories and enourage you along the way. My monthly column, Creative Compass, is a creative living companion. This is my most recent article. Enjoy!

It seems like such a reasonable thing. When planning a new project, a new career, a new adventure, it only makes sense to start from where you are right?

Wrong.

Well, not wrong, exactly. There’s really never a wrong way to start. But here’s the thing. When you start from where you are, you are limited by the current view. When you look out onto the horizon, imagining what’s possible, you can only see to the next hill. From where you are, you can’t help but take into account life as you know it: the amount of money you have in the bank, the supplies you have in your closet, the people you already know, the skills you’ve already mastered, etc. And starting from there, you can only stretch as far as those resources will take you.

With this approach, when you’re deciding whether to go back to school, you look at your bank account, your bills and your commitments to determine whether it’s possible. And of course your current situation and resources don’t fit the new plan. They weren’t designed to. They grew to support the way things are right now, not the way you want things to be next. Know that when you commit to something new, you will start redesigning and creating a life that supports the new “way things are.”

For example, before you were a mom, you didn’t have lists of babysitters at your fingertips. Before you travelled outside of the country for the first time, you didn’t know how to get a passport. But you learned. You gained knowledge, resources, skills and connections that helped you get beyond the limits of what was present to take you somewhere new. You’ve already done this literally hundreds of times. You will do it hundreds more. So why not do it in support of your wildest dreams?

What if you forgot the how and the now and just imagined what would be thrilling, fulfilling, spectacular, memorable, incomparable? What if you gave yourself space and time for some serious daydreaming, imagining that anything was possible? In a world where you could do anything, what would you dream up for your project, your business, your life? Would you travel farther, reach higher, risk more, take more time, touch more people? Would you pursue the same thing at all or try something entirely different? What do you want to do?

These days there are lots of messages out there reminding us to get present, to be where we are. And I know what I’m saying may seem to be counter to that that but really, it isn’t. It’s just a simple reminder that instead of focusing on the ‘now’ of our situation, we can be present with our spirit and discover what she most wants to do. And if you let your spirit take the lead, instead of your circumstances, imagine the adventures you’ll go on!

Tagged as: Goal-Setting, Visioning, Wish Studio

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