When we think about our vision, or try to create something new for the future, we usually miss out an important step.
Because of this, we might sabotage its success – and not know why. Even if we accomplish it, we wonder why we don’t feel the satisfaction we expected. The achievement might be successful, but we still have the same version of what we always had – maybe a little changed, or slightly upgraded, and this is unsatisfying.
Part of this is because important visioning pre-work was not done. And that’s what I’m going to cover here today.
One of the most important things we should build into our visioning process, whether this is for you personally, or for your team or organisation, is completing and honouring the past.
Huh? I can hear you ask! Aren’t we focusing on the future?
Well yes – but I’m talking about creating a new future based in what’s possible – and not just a future that is an inevitable continuation of what you already have. To create this new future, it’s really important to bring awareness and completion to your journey to date.
To not do this risks bleeding unresolved upsets, disappointments and failures into the new vision. It will limit what you set out to do. It will colour your progress.
What we can’t be with and acknowledge, will follow us into the future in a shadow form, to be dealt with then. By bringing honour and compassion to what has got you to this point, you will allow something new to open up for you. Something unexpected, thrilling and truly based in a new possibility.
Reckoning with the past as a prelude to creating the future is powerful magic. Its alchemical ingredients include celebrating how you’ve grown and what’s been achieved, and completing powerfully any disappointments or failures you’ve had with love and compassion. It allows you to reflect on what has got you to here, and take ownership for it all.
I do this process with my clients, and just finished this with my Rising 2021 participants. I’ll share a version here for you to practice. (I’ve written this for you personally, but it’s equally effective to do with your team or organisation. Just change the pronouns to make it work.)
Take your time with this process.
Close eyes, centre heart.
Looking back over your life, consider:
- What am I proud of?
- What’s been my greatest accomplishment?
- How did I keep going when things got tough?
- What can I let go of that I’ve been holding on to, and that’s no longer serving me? Hurts? Betrayals? Things I’ve done to others? Things done to me?
- What old story about myself will I release?
- When did I show bravery?
- What regrets do I have?
- What is better or more possible in the world only because I was here?
This is about getting present to you – your history, your past, who you’ve become.
The final part is a ritual of completion. When I do it, I write on paper something that I release, or I can have compassion for. I then burn it. One of my Rising women last week fed hers to her earthworms! (I love that!).
In honouring my past – what has made me me, I bring it all into awareness. There is nothing I need to hide from, or compensate for. From this space, an authentic vision will emerge. It will be one that’s not about fixing me or making me better. It immediately elevates my field of power and effectiveness because it is rooted in my ownership of my humanity. From this space the future can now be created without hooks from my past dragging me back, like an anchor.
This is a powerful process. It takes love, courage and awareness. It is the reckoning we must all do if we are to fulfil our calling.
Please let me know how you go if you try it.
