Thought for today:

In the DA pamphlet on Visions, we learn that our vision can be something uniquely ours.  How do we find our “Vision”?

A member shares:

“When I made my first Visions meeting,I didn’t know what to make of it.  It felt strange and selfish to think of what I wanted.  Why had I not done this before?

“To make my first Visions board, I cut magazine pictures of things I’d like to own – a new smart phone, a car, a bedroom set.  These were things I couldn’t afford yet, but I started to believe that I could have them if I worked for them.  Eventually my Spending Plan began to include money I could put aside to buy these things for myself.

“My Visions boards evolved over time after I achieved all the things that were on the earlier ones.  A degree, certification in my field, better quality in my relationships, a new apartment, all came true with time and a little more effort each day than I had put in before DA.   Before I knew it, I realized that I had everything I needed.

“Today, my Vision boards are focal points to help me find success in every area of my life.  I realize that it takes effort and change sometimes, while other times, change just seems to happen automatically.

“DA taught me it is possible to make my dreams come true, but I may have to work at it.”

Mindful transformational change

Sometimes a large vision we have will need to take hold in a process of transformation.  There are three parts* to changing:

1. Keep dealing with today.  While in this process, we need to maintain our present reality.  For instance, if our vision is a new job, we still want to manage our current job and not lose it.
2. Selectively abandon what doesn’t work from yesterday.  The next thing we need to do is abandon old ideas and methods that no longer work.  For instance, we can de-clutter and rid ourselves of material possessions that we no longer need.  Doing this benefits others and us, as we add value to others, and create space for our homes and offices to grow.  The same thing goes for a personal inventory of behaviors that no longer help us, like being hypercritical of those closest to us all the time.
3. Create tomorrow.  We can follow our intuition and the experiences of others to map out our future.  With incremental change, trying new strategies, we can adopt new patterns of behavior.  It is true that “to change a person, change their day”.

The more time we spend in part 2 and 3, the more we transform.  As we pick our heads up and look out at new opportunities, we can selectively deal with today, abandon parts of the past, and invent our future.

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