Written by: Ellen Jenny Watkins, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Do you remember the moment of your biggest transformation decision? I do – I was a crying, snotty mess at the dinner table as I looked at my son and husband and thought, “This is not the way I want to show up in life!” That was the moment that sent me on the journey to personal transformation, and untimely led me here, today. Started my own business, making 3x what I was in corporate, with opportunities showing themselves for 2024.
Transitions are a part of life, and they often come with a deep personal transformation. Mine sure did! That transformation can appear in your career, at home, in relationships…anywhere in your life. However, ensuring that the transformation reflects your true desires (and not those of society, partners, or upbringing) can be tricky – you have to imagine and create a vision of what you want on the other side of this deep change. The core problem is we’ve been conditioned to forget how to be creative and see possibility. We also haven’t been taught how to see the connections between varying ideas and those possibilities.
The good news is we all have the innate ability to make these connections, create, and envision greater opportunities for ourselves. Let’s talk about the 7 Secrets to Creating Your Vision – a supportive, creative process that helps you lean into your innate creative ability to envision a more fantastic future for yourself. These are the exact steps I used, and still use, as I continue to transform, learn, and grow. I give them to you as you step into 2024 and beyond.
All I ask is that you be open, be willing, and be committed to yourself. Be open to the ideas that come to you and put aside the self-critic that says, “It’s not good enough.” And be willing to follow the thread of curiosity where it leads you without thinking, “That’s not how it’s done.” Ask your perfectionist to leave for a bit and commit to trusting yourself and your intuition again. Let’s begin!
Part 1: Make space
The first three secrets focus on setting the space for your visioning. You want to make sure that your intentions are specific and that you’ve freed up both mental and physical space for the transformation you’re about to experience.
Secret 1: Create specific intentions
When you set a specific intention, it makes a huge difference and creates focus in your progress. Science has now proven that intention setting begins to organize the matter around you. It’s a powerful step in creating. I recommend writing down your intention and posting it somewhere you’ll see it daily.
Secret 2: Free up mental space
Make mental space using a data dump. This supportive practice will soon become a daily habit. Take 5 minutes each day – or set a rule for 3 notebook pages – and just write anything. This can be a daily list, your emotions, your dreams, things on your mind, what you feel in the environment around you…anything. Just get it down on paper and out of your head. This practice is like a lubricant for your creativity and creative thinking.
Secret 3: Create in your physical space
Connecting to your body is essential to achieving your goals. Dance, walk, exercise…just move. The body is literally a battery and a harness for our energy. Activate that energy and begin to magnetize other energy toward yourself. What you do gets incorporated into the other parts of your life. These practices will soon become daily habits that will help you achieve your goals and create the life you envision.
Part 2: Connect
Now that you’ve set the space and energy for your work, we start diving into the more complex parts of the process. Make sure to have a journal to brainstorm your ideas and process the emotions that go along with them. And don’t worry – this is an invigorating, empowering experience. Now, onto Secret 4.
Secret 4: Connect your emotions to your goals
When you’re creating your vision, it’s essential to know where you are right now: The good, the bad, the ugly, and the awesome. How do you feel in the various areas of your life? Consider work, family, health, financial, etc. Take inventory from your heart – not your head – and understand where you are and where you’re starting.
Then, it’s essential to identify how you want to feel and why you want to feel that way. When you understand the connection between these two, you can start experiencing a shift toward your vision. Take the same inventory across all parts of your life. How do you want to feel in all these same areas?
Connect these visions to goals. What current goals give you these feelings? And what goals can you create that support these feelings? Which ones use your natural strengths and connect to a more profound sense of why you want to do these things?
Secret 5: Check-In with your mindset beliefs
Next, it’s time to check your beliefs and ensure they align with what you want. Your magnetism and energy need to be consistent with your goals. Otherwise, they won’t work! So, what is your immediate response to the feelings and goals you’ve written down in step 4? Is your response critical or supportive? Write these reflections down to get them out of your body.
Identify the positive ones you want to take forward. And, since we now know that the mind is a computer, identify the critical beliefs and start reprogramming your mind. Write at least 3 simple true statements for each critical one (it’s 3:1) supporting your new visions. This will help you overcome those negative voices in your head that say, “You can’t.”
Part 3: Action
After you made the space, and created the vision and mindset, now it’s time to take action. You can work with your subconscious as well as your physical consciousness to create consistency that adds up to big things!
Secret 6: Create a daily anchor
This is the subconscious secret. Create something that you look at every day based on the emotions and truths you identified above. Incorporate pictures and words from above that make you FEEL GOOD and support your personal why. Use it to build and activate the emotions from inside your heart, instead of trying to attract from the outside mentally. Remember your body is a battery, and you’re activating your battery each day with this powerful step.
Secret 7: Take inspired action
I always teach using the phrase, “Just one mark.” Make just one mark over and over again – just one step every day puts you one step further tomorrow than you were today. It’s not all at once, and it doesn’t have to be done perfectly. Embrace the imperfection and keep moving forward with a small action daily. What action can you take today? Tomorrow? The next few days? And the days after that?
Now that you know these steps, you can do this for every major transformation, or as a check-in to ensure your still on your right track. Set some time aside each day to make progress, one mark over and over, every day. It all adds up to big things that impact us and those around us.
And remember: Be open. Be willing. Be committed.
Ellen Jenny Watkins, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Ellen Jenny Watkins is an artist, best-selling author, and award-winning trainer and coach. She’s inspired by the intersection of spirituality, modern science, ancient wisdom, and the connection back to our soul. With a focus on quantum physics, neuroscience, and chakras, Ellen is currently exploring the frequency of color and how it affects the body and environment to bring calm, inspiration, and healing to the chaos of the modern world. Ellen coaches individuals and groups through her unique approach to Creative Leadership and her signature works, Divine Explosions.
