Dazed and Confused.
No, not the movie. Worse, the state of mind. We’ve all been there. You can feel the power of the dream, you awaken at night in a cold sweat with the anxiety that it may never happen and wonder HOW to launch your goal. The maddening part of that equation is the HOW. Asking HOW when you have a dream, idea or goal is the absolute worst thing you can do because it moves you into the logical left brain of linear thinking. Then your ego gets involved and it all becomes wildly personal as the ego makes lists of lists of the reasons why you’re an imposter, a fool and totally unprepared (and unworthy) of what it is you want. You can short circuit all this madness that leads nowhere, spare your friends the years of talk, talk, talk and actually create your dream AND, almost effortlessly using this ONE thing. Welcome to getting clarity.
Clarity is defined as the quality of coherence and intelligibility, being easy to see or hear; sharpness of image or sound.
Wow! When is the last time you felt like that regarding something you wanted to achieve? If it’s been a while, or you’re steeped in confusion, or simply lacking the breakthrough you want in your relationship, business, body or acquisition, let me introduce you to the tool that will solve this problem.
The Mind Map
When you can remain in the creativity of what’s possible, endless resources come to our aid providing a spiritual freedom to manifest, create and become. It is the ultimate place of growth. On a side note, I think this is the reason the prophet Matthew wrote, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Little children know nothing of judgement and scarcity so in this exercise, I’m going to take you back when ANYTHING was possible. Ready to get clear and manifest effortlessly. Let’s Go! Setting the space:
- Lots of colorful pens – the scented ones are fun!
- Paper – big paper! I like to go to a craft store and buy a long roll so I can keep creating and it stores nicely.
- Gum – Candy – Chocolate: Ya that’s right, your inner child LOVES these things. Buy the kind you purchased when you were a kid.
- Gals: Braid your hair. Pigtails is perfect, with bows in them.
- Guys: Rock some cool sunglasses or wear a favorite shirt.
Now, take 5-6 minutes and surrender. Breathe fully and exhale fully to clear out the tension and step into allowance.
Did you do that? Write your name, place or thing in the middle of the page and go crazy defining it with the …
WHO – WHAT – WHERE – WHY – WHEN
Do NOT, I repeat do NOT think, speak or even mention the HOW. That is danger land of judgement! Profitable Business: Serving who? What does your customer look like? What problems are you solving? How will you feel earning $100,000, $200,000, half a million per year? Drill down!! Vacation: Where to? In the Spring, Summer? Winter? Who will you go with? Where will you stay? How will this make you feel? Car: What color? What does the steering wheel feel like? What’s the smell? Pay in cash or finance? We think logically but make decisions emotionally. So the way to make epic changes around anything in life is to emphasize a supporting story to our dreams, replace the negative self talk with the powerful affirmations and social accountability. I talk to people all day everyday that want more money. All day. Every. Day. (sigh, gasp!) In these conversations, I’ve learned a few things:
- We’re all powerful dreamers and manifestors.
- We’re all negative and ridiculously self-defeating.
- The power of a Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-driven (S.M.A.R.T.) goal is unstoppable.
So go crazy! Want to create a new reality for yourself? Embrace this mind map exercise. Send me a picture of YOUR mind map and I can even tell you what I see in it. Looking forward to seeing you in action, living life on the other side of your dreams.
My frank advice: Do not get stuck with mindmapping. It’s just one tool. It’s limitation is paring down every issue, or problem or challenge to a centralised point. The real world doesn’t operate in this manner. Be prepared to expose to a smorgasbord of visual tools and graphic organisers: e.g. “timeline” for charting out a forward trajectory; “flow diagram” to show a process flow of steps or stages; “Venn diagram” to illustrate comparisons and contrasts; “transistive order diagram” to sequence a historical event; “story board” or “story grid” to fish out key elements of a narrative or story; “causal loop diagram” to highlight causality of a critical event, just to name a few. To sum up, the ‘Law of Requisite Variety’ applies. That’s to say, the more variable options you have in breaking down an issue, or problem, or challenge, the better you are in understanding and dealing with the changing dynamics of the real world.