Clearly defining our dreams, visions, and goal is a tremendously powerful action towards living the life we want.
But there is a nuance here! Don’t let your dreams ruin your life.
When I was 21 years old, Jolianne (my spouse and business partner) and I developed and articulated a very clear vision of what our dream farm was going to be like. It was going to be 100 acres of hay, pasture, grain, and vegetables all in rotation. There was going to be animals too: draft horses to do the farm work, pigs, cows, sheep, chickens… and with 3 wild naked children running around, playing in the mud and getting into all sorts of mischief.
Now, don’t get me wrong… I love this dream! What happened though is that as the years went by, I did not allow myself the flexibility to adapt this dream. We launched our farm straight out of university and commenced to build a business that would allow us to buy this dream farm. Thankfully, we were able to launch our business using a rented farm. Along the way, I realised that 100 acre farms in our area weren’t selling for 350K$ anymore…they were selling for 5, 6, or 700K$. Add on the cost of the needed infrastructure and it was clear this was going to be a million dollar project at the very least.
Did this make me hesitate.. not in the slightest! When the going gets tough, the tough get going… and I was going to be both tough and smart, so this would be no problem! And so, I kept on building the business that could sustain this anticipated debt load.
We several time came very close to buying such a farm… I am so grateful that I somehow realised that this debt load would absolutely not contribute to the quality of life I valued and had envisioned!
The thing is …. I had grown attached to the HOW of my vision which had out shadowed the WHY. There was obviously some deeply valued life’s intention that led me to dream up that vision of my dream farm in the first place. I was more focused to how I thought I was going to live out that life’s intention in physical reality than focused on the life’s intention itself. That are many ways to skin a cat (as the saying goes) just as there are many outcomes that can satisfy a given life’s intention.
I am so grateful that I was able to see this in time! Is a privilege to be able to put this experience to the benefit of others via my coaching practice! (The wild thing is that i have since acquired several tools via my coach training that are exquisitely useful for this type of situation).
What is it you want to create?
Now… WHY do you want to create it?
Yes! That’s the important part!
Write it down somewhere and check in periodically to be sure that the goal you are pursuing is still in alignment with the life’s intention you were seeking to fulfill.