Today on my run I thought about a lesson my high school cross-country coach taught me. It was on the power of vision. I remember it clearly, it was hot, and I did not want to finish running up the hill that our practice ended on. She sprinted up to me, reminded me I was strong, and told me to focus on someone on the road ahead of me, not too close, but not too far either. I want you to focus so much on that runner that they will pull you forward. I looked at her with disbelief but tried it anyway. She got me out of my negative headspin, but also every time I’ve ever done this, I find myself passing said runner in front of me. This vision of my future spot on the road literally drew me forward, and it did so faster and with more ease.
Now as a corporate leadership and life coach, the first session discusses vision and my client’s vision for the pie slices of their life. Without a vision, we ramble on in life like an explorer without a map. Yes, we have some fun here and there and some grand adventures, but we lack a north star. The fulfillment you feel about where you are in your vision for each pie slice impacts the whole. Your community and relationships impact how you show up at work. Your health impacts how you show up in every area of your life. Yet, how many of us have been taught to put health on the backburner and just get the work done?
We have maps and GPS that go with us always these days. Heading on a hike? Just put it in AllTrails and you understand your destination and how to prepare for it. Going skiing? There’s an app for that too. How interesting that we rarely are taught to create a map for our own life. Even when we do create one, we don’t look at it regularly to recalculate. How do we know where we’re going or if we even still want to go there?
What is one area of your life that just doesn’t look or feel how you hoped it would? Or is it what you’d hoped, but now that you’re living it just doesn’t feel right? Find that area, put five minutes on a timer, and write notes on your ideal vision for this part of your life. Be detailed, note how you want to feel. Let yourself briefly sink into the vision you wrote for yourself daily, see and feel it as if it’s already real.
Let me know how that vision draws you forward at nicole@eloiandstella.com.
