What is your vision for what you want in your life? I believe creating the life you’ve always wanted starts with you!

Manifesting the type of life you’ve always dreamed of achievable… if you believe in it and willing to work hard to achieve it.

Many of us were isolated from friends, family and loved ones over this past couple of years, but one thing it did allow for each of us was time to think and reflect.

One thought that resonated during this self-reflective period has been “where you start is not where you end”.

If you’re like me, even with a less than stellar childhood I’ve been able to put that all aside and create the life I always wanted.

Discovering a few home truths along the way…

The first of these is that we think we have control of our lives, but actually we have very little.

Most of us have created a narrative that we use to make sense of our lives, including the myriad of twists and turns but at the end of the day it just a story that explains it.

Upon reflection we often discover that the trajectory of our lives is a bit of a “higgledy piggledy” set of circumstances and moments that have come together to create our lives versus a grand master plan.

Me included by the way!

This is called life!  We didn’t orchestrate it, although we definitely have a big part to play, but ultimately we don’t control it either.

The second item of self-reflection has been about the concept of worrying less. The sheer fact is that the only person we disadvantage is ourselves when we spend time worrying.

Just think about that for a moment…

Let’s just imagine that you have a big presentation to make.  You prepare, and practice, but you still have nagging doubts, fears and worry about the presentation.  The night before you can’t sleep, and you worry that it will be terrible…

Do the attendees worry about your presentation beforehand?  How about the event?  Does it worry that your presentation is good or bad… of course not!

Nope, the only person who’s impacted is you.

And for what?  If you’ve prepared and practiced and know your content, then what are you worrying about?  The event will ultimately be the event, whether you worry or not.

Worrying about what “might be” is a massive waste of your time and energy.

The third item of discovery has been that you, and only you can shape your destiny.

Whenever someone says to me, “you’re so lucky because you get to travel and explore the world and do lots of exciting and interesting things in your life”.

To be clear luck has nothing to do with it!

I’ve worked hard at creating the life I’ve always wanted.

It started for me over a decade ago when my life was at an inflection point…

Leaving a 16 year marriage and relationship, with two kids to raise half time coupled with resigning from a perfectly good corporate job…

Most people thought I was crazy at the time, and some still likely do.

Each of these choices allowed me to free myself of the old me and allow me to reinvent myself and to create the life I’d always wanted.

Having the courage to start again and pursue your passions and all that life has to offer is somewhat daunting, but at the end of the day it’s all about choices.

During this journey I noticed a subtle change in my mindset.  As I began shedding my old life my psyche embraced and adapted to a more flexible mindset.

I’m a big believer in trusting the universe and surrendering myself to see what life has in store for me.

However, it’s much more complex than sitting back and seeing what happens.

Believing that the universe will guide you to where you’re supposed to be, and then couple that with your drive and work ethic great things begin to happen.

To support my journey as a symbol of my new mindset I created a vision board to help me reinforce the things that were important, as well as the indicators and milestones to help show me I was on the right path.

Over the years my vision boards have come in many forms.  Initially they began as a series of sticky notes strategically positioned throughout my home.

Others were evident and ever present in my mediations, still others were located where I would discover and rediscover them during my day.

Each one constantly reinforcing what I wanted from my life and more importantly how I wanted to live my life.

Two major elements to my initial vision were to create a stable and consistent life for Zach and Sam which included me being present and engaged.

The second element was for me to create a job that would allow me the freedom to create this type of life with Zach and Sam, while allowing me to travel the world and explore.

Now, some ten years later I’ve felt as though I have fulfilled my initial vision, but of course now I have a new vision board.

In fact, I change my vision board when I achieve one of the five or six elements that make it up.  For the ones I’m still yet to achieve, they remain on my board until they are achieved.

In all my years I’ve been able to channel my energy to successfully achieve each of the items on my past boards.  Some take longer than others but as you know some of the sweetest things in life are worth waiting for…

No one, including my family would have imagined the life that I’ve been able to create for myself, Zach and Sam.

It all comes back to recognizing and accepting that “where you start is not where you end”… if you want it badly enough and willing to work hard and persevere then the sky is the limit!

Until next week

Ciao