What vision is running your life right now?
There is a practice I do with myself, and recently did for the participants in my Rising program, that I want to share with you. It aims to get underneath the drift of life we are in, and reflect on what our future looks like if we continue wafting along, like little boats bobbing on a wide river.
I call this uncovering our Passive Vision. Its power lies in recognising that our lives are all run by some kind of vision, and it’s usually one we haven’t consciously designed. If we have expectations for the future, but we leave their fulfilment to chance, we can feel some powerlessness. Often our plans for the future are based on the social context we find our self in, or what we’ve done in the past. They have not been consciously chosen.
Passive Vision gets at the status quo of our own life. It seeks to bring into focus what your life will look in the drift. It helps us understand where we are now – and where we will be in a year (or three) if nothing changes. Being aware of this – without judgement, allows us to get conscious about our unconscious vision for our life.
To get aware of your Passive Vision, think through what it will be like if you went along in your life as is: a few ups, a few downs, a few sideways moves. Now I know that quite possibly sounds like a dream, given the huge amount of change we are in. But this doesn’t nullify the power in the exercise.
The Exercise
Pick some time into the future. Some of my Rising participants chose 3 or 5 years. Another chose 15 as she is wanting to design her legacy. (Remember, this is not about proactively designing your future. This is about confronting where you will be if you let life meander on as it is.)
Sit with a pen and paper, and ask the following questions.
- If I keep drifting along:
- What will my life look like?
- How will I feel?
- How are my relationship?
- Am I fulfilled?
- Where will I be vocationally?
- What consequences will there be for me spiritually if nothing changes?
- What are the consequences in my personal life?
- What about the broader world?
- How would I feel about my life looking back to today?
Whenever I do this process in my own life, I’m confronted with a feeling of inevitability that doesn’t inspire me. Even though I love where I’m at now, when I examine my Passive Vision, I see that without an intervention, I am left a flatter version of my current life. It might be comfortable, but not fulfilling. And sometimes it can be quite eye opening to see where I’m leaving outcomes to chance or luck.
In doing this exercise, I get to see that living a life I love and that expands me takes my active intervention, my conscious creation and my courage to seize it. I need to do the work to craft a conscious future!
This is not as easy or as flowy as it sounds. Crafting my vision consciously requires me to dig into crevices, listen deeply to unheard yearnings, and tap into my spirit. It always involves breaking free from what I expect of myself, or what I think society expects. It always delivers.
Even though so much is uncertain now, don’t be lulled into thinking you have no say over the life that unfolds for you. Try doing a Passive Vision audit and see what the drift is pointing you towards. If it’s not a future that inspires you, then it’s time to start crafting a full spectrum vision that does.
