Keep your eye on the prize!

Are you sitting down without any distractions?  Well at least can you sit for a second and zone out of the normal daily chaos?  Allow yourself to sink back into your chair, close your eyes, relax your body, and picture yourself in the life you were meant to live.  Smell the smells, see the scenery, touch the objects, and listen to the sounds that surround you as you are living in your ideal way of life.  Now let me ask you a couple of questions.  Are you happy in your new life? Does it make you smile and feel content?  Can you see yourself living this life and making a go of it?  GREAT!  This is the first step of determining your true destiny and where you are supposed to be.

The trick now is creating this vision in a way that you can hold on to it and commit to it.  If you like to blog or journal, write it down. If you are an artist, make a collage or paint it.  If you are a songwriter put together a melody and sync it to music.  If you spend a lot of time in your mind do what I do, imagine every detail and put together a living breathing scene in your mind and cement it there.  When I coming up with a new event, function, strategy, or even business I work backwards.  I visualize how I want it to end up and then create the scene in my mind.  I imagine the smells, sights, feelings, smallest details, and how people will interact within my vision and I own it.  I "keep my eye on the prize" and commit to the fact that my vision will become reality.  If you can see the end goal first and then take steps towards it the process seems to lay itself out in front of you and becomes less chaotic and cluttered.  It becomes a simple action plan instead of "how in the world am I going to make this happen."

Try it.  You can do this in area of your business or life.  The latest campaigns I am using it for is the SoBo Central, Lantern Walk "A Night of Light" and the marketing strategy for Touch Tanks for Kids, Sharcula educational campaign.  If you know what you want to have happen in the end it makes the first step so much easier to take.  Decide what you want to do, who you want to be, and the results you would like to achieve and then start walking towards your goal until you reach it.  Don't get me wrong, it's easy to get off track and make decisions that lead you away from the goals you've committed to but that is why you surround yourself with good friends and business colleagues. Share your vision with them, tell your story, let them feel your passion and commitment so that they will  help you stay on track and realize your goals.  This is your story and you are the main character don't let someone else decide your plot for you.  Keep your eye on the prize!

P.S. -
When times get tough it becomes even more important to try to regroup and decide what's next.  When The Little Hat Company was ending and the writing was on the wall that we had taken it as far as Sue and I possibly could within the circumstances I sat down at my personal blog and asked myself what I wanted to be next.  I had an overwhelming feeling that I couldn't go back to corporate and I wanted to have flexibility for these last couple years of Libby's little time.  I knew that I loved creating and spinning a good story and had a ton of experience and education in marketing and business development and I knew how to do it well.  I began picturing myself working from home, doing a lot of writing, and creating marketing campaigns for companies in the Northeast. You know where this is all going.  I didn't necessarily know how I was going to reach this end goal but I knew it was what my heart wanted.  Then I received an IM on facebook from someone who I knew more than 20 years ago asking if I would open up the NE for his marketing/communications firm - TylerRyanGroup  Just 2 months later I have signed clients, meeting with prospects, writing a business blog, and have 3 scheduled events in this upcoming calendar year.  It wasn't all fun and games getting here - there have been some rough spots and there will be more but I am committing to this new goal and taking steps towards it everyday to make it my reality.  Call me let's do coffee! Jennifer Houghton 207.450.8441