Kickin’ Off The New Year
Happy New Year!!
It’s here, isn’t it? Already just about a week into a brand new year.
Are you still plotting and planning, thinking about your plans for 2012?
If so, be sure to grab yourself a FREE New Year Strategy Session with me to look at exactly what you want to accomplish and HOW you’re going to go about making your big ideas happen this year.
Also.. last year, I did a whole big, long series about Intentions.. how to create them, how to keep them, and how to use them to empower you to make stuff happen in your life. You can check out that series here.
So, what do you want 2012 to be about?
This is the thing that I’m going to be working on in this new year (and I’m going to be super focused on training and working with anyone who also wants this in her life)… it’s this:
Living a Visionary Life
And here’s what I mean by that…
You know those moments when all is clear.. anything is possible.. you know that you can BE anyone you want.. you can ACCOMPLISH anything you desire, you can love with all your heart and zero fear, courage comes easy, and in that moment you are 100% satisfied, ridiculously happy and without question fulfilled? I call those magic moments.
In those magic moments, your VISION for life is also very, very clear. The essence, or flavor, of what truly inspires you is right there, present and filling you up.
It’s giving you life.
When you can take that vision and infuse it into all areas of your life: your parenting, your work, your home, your friendships, your art, and everything else that you do (even folding the laundry). When your vision is the backbone of your entire life.. that is Visionary Living.
When you live this way it makes an impact.
It effects everything and everyone you come into contact with. The world becomes a better place because YOUR vision is out there making a difference.
So that’s what I’m focusing on this year.. Living MY life in a visionary way and helping as many moms as I can to also live Visionary Lives.
Because, can you imagine that?
Us moms totally inspired, in contact with our own magnificent inspirations and living in a way that has our biggest, boldest visions fully out there, alive in the world?
Imagine the impact of that on our kiddos? And who they will become because of us livng true to what we believe and invision for the world? (yeah, awesome, huh?)
Ok, I know I am doing some grandiose thinking here.. but really.. why not?
Why not live life to make an impact?
Why not be connected to that powerfully aliveness?
Why not spread joy and happiness and fulfillment with everything we do?
Why freakin not?
I think I’ll grab that as my mantra for the year.. WHY FREAKIN’ NOT??
I love you guys!
Thanks for being here and spreading the magic of Visionary Living with me. So excited to see what impact each and every one of you make in the world throughout this sparkly brand new year.
xo, Lisa
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Make A Plan, Pay What You Can
Have you started to think about 2012 and what you want to make happen in the new year?
I know I have and that means it’s time to start PLANNING!
And since I want to support you in making your awesome stuff happen, I am offering you the super magnificent Make A Plan DIY e-course for anything you are willing to pay.
Yup, that’s right! Have a dollar and that’s it? Then pay me $1.
I am not joking about this.
Pay whatever you can afford or feel the course would be worth to you. And it’s a deal.
I know that the way I teach you to plan in this course really works. It helps you get your ideas out of your head, scheduled and makes sure you are set up to succeed, making your big dreams happen.
So, I want to give anyone access to the course. Please don’t let money or fear, or whatever get in the way of you making your dreams come true.
Your life is now. You can make anything you want happen.
Anything. You just have to claim it and begin.
The Make A Plan Course will help you do that.
Your dreams are waiting for you.
Go here to get the Make A Plan course for whatever you can afford. And, I’m not crazy, so this offer will only be available for a brief time. So don’t wait.
Let’s, together, create miracles in 2012!!!
xo, Lisa
Leave a Comment5 Things You Need To Truly Thrive
Did you know that passion alone won’t carry the day?
my daughter, creating her own dreams...
Yes, passion is important. It’s vital to living a truly joyous life that is fulfilling and makes an impact.
But, you need a heck of lot more than just passion to live a life worth living.
There are other things that are just as important. And when they join forces with that glorious passion spark, then WATCH OUT! Very little will stop you from making those big, juicy, inspiring dreams of yours happen!
This list is not the be all, end all.
The top 5 things you need to truly thrive in life:
1. Passion.
Yes, for sure. Passion is the light that makes everything seem possible. It is the love, the joy, the thrill. It’s why you are working on what you’re working on in the first place.
2. A Clear Vision
I am crazy inspired by creativity. But, that alone will not make anything really fabulous happen in my life. What do I want to do with creativity? Do I want to make things? Write? How do I want to express myself? Do I want to help others find their creativity? What is it about this whole business of being creative that inspires me? What do I want to make happen in the world with this passion of mine? In what ways can I tap into and live my life being creative?
These are important questions to ask and answer. How are you going to manifest your passion? What is the vision of how to best bring more of your passion into your life and the world?
Get specific here! For me, I’ve decided I’m going to be an art teacher. I changed my major in school to make this happen. I have a clear vision of how I want to inspire teenagers to express themselves through art. Along the way, I’m also going to make lots of art and engage with the creative community where I live. But, I have a goal, a specific vision of what I want to make happen in the world.
3. A Plan
Just winging it usually doesn’t work. Yes, sometimes we get lucky. Or our passion is so big, we can’t help but to work on making our dream a reality. But, more often than not, the day to day grind of just living will, the urgent pressing needs of our everyday lives, will get in the way and wear us out. Leaving little room, energy and motivation for the yummy stuff that feeds our soul.
It’s such a funny thing, but we are all guilty of it!
We all know that when we are inspired and engaged with life in a passionate way, we feel better, are better mamas and are way more fulfilled and happy. And yet, we put that stuff off until later.
You have to plan for your dreams. You have to carve out room in your busy life to work on them, or they may not happen! I have a plan for getting my teaching credentials, I know where I’m going to finish off my schooling, how long it’s going to take and what I need to do. I am registered for classes and am actively working on that plan.
My dream is coming to fruition because I have a plan. Without that plan, all I would have is the idea.
Knowing what you want to manifest in the world and how you’re going to do that breeds a far greater chance that you will actually succeed!
4. Integrity
Being passionate about something, knowing specifically what you want to make happen, and mapping out a plan for how to get there will make exactly nothing happen if you don’t take action. If you don’t do the things that are necessary to bring about whatever it is you want to create in your life, then your big ideas probably won’t happen.
If I totally slack off in school, don’t do my assignments, don’t engage in my learning and participate with a full heart, then I’m not going to end up teaching. Period.
You have to do the work.
If you say you are going to spend time in your studio painting, you have to do it if you want to be a painter.
And here’s the rub about integrity:
Every time you don’t do something that you set out to do, it clouds your vision, it warps your passion and it leaves you doubting yourself. Which can so quickly send you down the “I suck, what’s wrong with me, my life is hard” path.
The more you take action on your dreams, the more happy and fulfilled you are. The more you blow off stuff and avoid taking action, the more like poo you feel.
So, yeah, integrity is a seriously important component.
5. Support
All of the above, you can for sure manage and do on your own. But, it is so much easier and so much more effective when you don’t go it alone.
Having people around you who support your dreams, encourage you to take action, push you to go for it. This makes such a ginormous difference.
When my people have my back, they don’t buy into my self doubt. They lift me up when I feel like I can’t go on. They cheer on my accomplishments. They say yes to all my lofty ideas. They get me and that gives me courage.
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When you put these 5 things together.. so much more becomes possible.
You really can make any dream, ANY DREAM, you want come true.
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This I Believe…
I believe the world needs MORE people willing to take risks. Not money risks or let’s see what happens here kind of risks. But, risks of the heart, risks that take courage. Risks that might leave you heart broken and devastated, but that will more likely transform what is possible and leave such a huge impact that the risk will seem like nothing.
I believe the world needs LESS holding back, less keeping it together, less trying to be perfect.
I believe that moms have the most beautiful hearts and, with that enormous stockpile of love, we have the power to make a difference. We have this amazing capacity to let people (not just our kids) know how special they are and that they matter. We have so much love to give.
I believe that if we stop being careful, if we let go of our fear, if we unleash that love on the world, we can make an impact. We can change peoples lives and help people connect with their truer selves. I believe that us doing this is the beginning of peace and joy in the hearts of all people.
I don’t believe that motherhood is hard or a burden. I don’t think it should be used as an excuse or a reason for why we can’t do stuff that we love. Being a mother doesn’t take away, it adds, and makes us better women.
I believe in you. I believe in your heart, your gifts, your art, your message. I believe you have something to say that’s worth saying.
And, I believe that it’s time. It’s time to take the leap. To go for it. To let go and release all that you are into the world.
What are you waiting for?
xo, Lisa
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This One Thing Can Make ANY Dream Come True
I’ve been crazy busy this past month.
Pretty much all my attention has been on majorly cleaning up, painting and preparing my Granny’s house for us to move into. Then there was the moving in part.
Oh and don’t forget the basement flooding the first week. Whew! Yes, crazy indeed.
But now we are done, settled in and I’m busy reading design blogs getting ideas for how I want to spruce things up. 
While I’ve been totally focused on this project, pretty much nothing else has been happening. Very little writing, business building, outdoor playing, art making, etc. Any left over energy was 100% devoted to the mamas on the Visionary Mom Teams.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how amazing it is that we got so much done in so little time. We seriously kicked ass and met our deadline to have the move complete before school started (which was yesterday and awesome btw!).
From all this, I’ve come to this one big realization:
Whatever you focus on and pay attention to is what creates your life.
Sounds simple, but this is really important.
I hear so many people say “I wish…..” and then feel like crud because whatever it is that they want just isn’t happening.
(photo credit ~ Manifest Destiny Card Set on Etsy )
But, the only way to have the life of your dreams is to focus on, pay attention to and take action on whatever it is you want.
For me, I decided that I want my own house to live in. So I set a pretty unreasonable deadline, got my family inspired by my mad plan and then gave the bulk of my attention and energy to doing whatever was needed to make that goal happen. It was hard work. And I poured my heart and soul into this project, even if that meant other things were not getting much attention from me while I dug in.
But, now I have a really awesome little house to live in that I love!
Everyday when I’d wake up to go work on the house, did I always want to? Heck no! In fact, often I didn’t. Deep house cleaning? Not my thing.
But, the dream, the vision of raising my kiddos in the same house that I grew up in. THAT is what I focused on, THAT is what I gave my attention to, THAT is what I took action on.
That dream is what I talked and thought about while I scrubbed walls and ripped up carpet.
And so, in a very short time, I fulfilled one of the things I wanted for myself this year: A great home to live in that is super affordable and that gives us the space we need to make all our dreams come true.
So, the one principal that can make your dreams come true is this:
Here’s how to apply this in real life:
First, some examples of how this doesn’t work:
- Wishing to be more creative, but focusing, paying attention to and taking action toward having the cleanest house on the block.
- Wanting to leave your day job and start your own business, but focusing on getting that raise, paying attention to trying to make your work better, and only taking the normal day to day going to work actions.
- Dreaming about selling your house and traveling the world with your family, but focusing on house projects, paying attention to stuff your want to do around the house, and taking action on making your yard awesome.
All of that attention and action is GREAT if what you most want in life is a clean, orderly home or you really love your job and want to be super successful doing whatever you’re doing, or if you your dream is to have the most awesome home to come home to everyday.
If, however you want the other stuff, here’s how to apply this principal to make those things happen:
- You are wishing to be more creative, so you focus on all things creative, you pay attention to opportunities to make stuff, and you take action every day, no matter what, to do something fun and creative in your life.
- You want to leave your job and start your own business, so you focus on what you want to do, you learn, you plan, you dive into your ideas and you take action every day, no matter what, on starting that business. ‘
- You dream of traveling full time with your family in an RV around the country, so you focus on saving money, you pay attention to other people who are doing it and you learn as much as you can from them; you take action every single day, no matter what, on cutting your expenses, getting rid of your stuff and getting your family ready to hit the road.
This is the one principal you want to remember to make your dreams come true:
“Whatever you focus on, pay attention to, and take action toward is what gives you the life you’re living.” Tweet this quote!
Manifest Destiny
Are Your Dreams a Priority?
I know that you have dreams and I also know that those dreams are important to you.
But, are you giving those big, awesome dreams of your top billing in your life?
Do you make fulfilling them a priority? Are you sure??
It’s reality check time.
Take 5 minutes to do this quick exercise:
- Look at the past week (or, if it’s been an out of the norm week, pick a recent “normal” week).
- Write down everything that you did. How did you spend your time? What things did you work on? See if you can map it out with everything in it, including how much time you spent on each thing.
- Then look it over. What are you spending your time working on?
My list - LOTS of time working! Which is my big dream right now.. yay!
This will reveal for you your priorities.
The stuff on your list are the things that are getting your attention.
How much of that attention is focused on your dreams? Tell the honest to goodness truth here. Are your dreams getting top billing? Or are you squeezing in very little time (or no time!) to actually make your dreams come true?
If what you learned here was bad news, guess what? It’s actually good news! Why? Because now you can do something about it.
If you start making your dreams a priority, this really cool thing happens – you’ll start to see those awesome dreams of yours come true!
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Cultivating Your Passion – Part 2 – Easy Steps to Keep Your Dreams Alive
I think we have all experienced that feeling of loosing touch with our dreams.
photo credit
When your motivation, your passion, the joy and enthusiasm disappears and the only thing you’re left with is frustration, disappointment, doubt and questioning yourself.
No fun!
Well here are few easy things you can do to keep your dreams alive.
1. Create a Vision Board that you have up in front of you, reminding you and pulling you back into the yumminess of your dreams.
2. Talk about and share your dreams often, with people who get it. It is VERY hard for your dreams to live only inside of you. To help them grow, you have to water them and the best way to do that is to talk about what you love with people who will get excited right along with you.
3. Make a plan to fulfill your dreams so the path to get there is clear and feels doable. Not knowing where you’re going is a sure fire way to leave you feeling overwhelmed and unsure.
4. Find someone that will help you stay accountable. Someone who wants you to win and will keep you pointed in the right direction. Stop trying to do this alone! There is something really powerful about reaching out and asking for help.
5. Get back on the horse. Things will likely happen that throw you off course, that challenge you and that make you feel like throwing in the towel. But, you have to keep moving forward. Giving up will get you nowhere.
6. Believe in yourself and your dreams. They matter. YOU matter. What you want to make happen in the world matters. Remind yourself of this often.
7. Be gentle with yourself. Starting something new, diving into your dreams, going for it. That is scary! It’s risky. So love on yourself as much as possible, be kind when you make mistakes, forgive yourself. It takes real courage to live a passionate life and the rest of the world won’t always be behind you. Be proud that you are doing – that your trying. And be kind when that fear shows up to slow you down.
What are your dreams? What are you truly passionate about? What mark do you want to make on the world?
Leave a CommentFinding Your Passion is Not As Hard As We Make It Out To Be – 7 Steps to Get You Started
I think we like to make things complicated. But finding your passion is not really that hard.
First, I think we try to fit things into being a passion, when they really aren’t. An example: I love photography. Like, really, really love. I enjoy taking photos, looking at photos and learning all about it. I often think that is my true passion, but it’s not.
It is something I enjoy a ton, and something I will for sure continue doing for the rest of my life. My true passion? People. And what inspires them, their passions. I am passionate about passion! It’s what I stay up at night thinking about, what is always on my mind, what I work on all the time. How to help people pursue and unlock their passions so they can make their dreams come true. That is what I am crazy passionate about.
Photography is one of my loves and I may even be a little bit passionate about it. But my camera can sit here on my desk for weeks without me even thinking about it. Dreams and passion and making a difference with people. I can’t go a day without diving into that.
Then, I think we think there is some one perfect thing out there that we must find and locate or we will never truly be happy. Which is so not true! So many things in life provide inspiration and joy and fulfillment. Finding your passion can really be as simple as paying attention to what that stuff is, and then cultivating more of that. (Next week, I’ll write more about cultivating our passions).
So, how do you figure out your passion?
1. What are you attracted to? What kind of people, blogs, books, movies, etc. What are those things all about? What are their passions?
2. Dig deeper. Go beyond the surface of the things you are drawn too. Yes, I love photography, but when I look deeper, I really love portrait photography – the kind that truly captures the essence of a person, that gives you a glimpse into who that person really is and what makes them tick. So, yes, you may love to read crafting blogs, but maybe it’s not the craft that is inspiring you – maybe it’s something deeper?
3. What moves you? Do you ever find yourself with tears in your eyes about something or so full of happiness and joy about something? What about that is stirring your soul? Last night, I was watching The Voice, which if you don’t know is one of those singing reality shows. All through the show I was so moved, crazy sappy-happy moved. Why? Because these courageous people were boldly chasing their dreams! And that is what most inspires me.
4. What do you think about all the time? What opens up the floodgate of ideas? What gets your creativity fired up? What do you obsess about and stay up late at night thinking about. Not the junk you worry about, but the stuff that gets you excited as you daydream about it. It is easy to get consumed by what your passionate about when we let ourselves really get into it.
5. Look back over your life, when did you most feel alive? What things from your past really excited you and got the wheels spinning? What about those things? I worked on a film project in high school. It was an 18 minute VHS movie called, “What is the meaning of life?” The month I worked on it was one of the most invigorating, consuming, inspiring experiences of my life. Yes, some of that was the medium – I love film, but more of it was the subject matter and interviewing tons of people about what life means to them, then putting those stories together.
6. Tell the truth as you explore these questions. I was recently working with a mom who was struggling with finding her passion. As we were talking it was so obvious to me what she most loved, but not to her. One of her objectives with our coaching session was to figure out her purpose and passion, and yet it was seeping out of her! She’s a therapist and working with clients is not what her passion is, it is the process. Her passion is learning about, thinking about, exploring and experiment with different processes. It’s the theories that inspired her, not the actual therapy. Seeing that and telling the truth about it was a huge aha moment for her!
7. Give up that it has to look a particular way. Your passion may very well be knitting. You obsess about it, you can’t go a day without picking up your needles, patterns are floating in your pretty little head all day long and yarn stores make you pee your pants. BUT, for many of us, our passion is not a THING. It is more of a feeling, an experience. There are many vehicles for expressing our passion, when we know what it is. A big help in discovering your passion is to let go of the HOW and focus more on the WHAT. Your passion may be the creative process. HOW you explore that can change and evolve over the course of your life. You may find that it’s the theory of creativity that truly inspires you way more than the actual making of stuff. So maybe where you find your bliss in teaching or writing about creativity instead of painting or drawing.
Now, I know for some of you, it may be that you have never bumped into your passion. Keep looking! It’s out there. Just stop trying to make it so complicated. Be committed to living a passionate life. I’m willing to bet it’s not too far away or too mysterious. Follow these steps, listen to your heart, and surrender to it. Be willing to be surprised by what it is that deeply inspires you.
Does this help? Do you have any questions about it? Any aha moments you want to share about? Let me know in the comments below. And please share this with your peeps!
Leave a CommentVision, Purpose & Passion: What the heck all that means and How to Be Visionary
We all talk alot about passion and purpose. I talk around here about Vision. Well, how do you go about living a Visionary Life?
First, some Lisa definitions:
Passion
It tugs at your heart, makes you smile. You think about it all the time. The wheels get spinning easily. Ideas. There are plenty of those. When you are passionate about something, it is part of you, your life blood, what makes you tick.
Purpose
This may or may not be that same as your passion. Purpose usually has nothing to do with you. It’s about those around you, the people you impact and how you make a difference in their lives. Purpose is about sharing your gifts with the world, helping to make it a better place.
Mission
This is what you set out to do. Think of missionaries venturing out to speak their truth and bring more people into their way of thinking.
Vision
Take all of that – your passion, your purpose and your mission, combine them all and you will see a new world, new possibilities, new ways of living and being. What once seemed totally impossible now has it’s own heart beat. Dreams and ideas, fully realized. You can see it, feel it, taste it. This is your vision.
How do you create a visionary life?
1. You have to be clear about your passion, your purpose, and your mission. From there, a vision will show up. A vision for your life and the lives of the people around you.
2. You declare it, own it, share it. You vision is beautiful, please don’t be afraid to share it.
3. You live it. You work hard to line your life up with that vision. You let go of the things that don’t match, that weigh you down. You bring in more of the stuff that lift you up, closer to what you see possible.
4. You eagerly learn and grow. You know that to bring newness in you have to learn new ways to think. You have to shed the thinking of the past and invent new rules to the game. This takes patience and courage. But, you know that standing still will get you no where, so you walk toward learning and you embrace the fragile spaces of growth.
5. You are gentle with yourself. Nothing happens over night. You may even fail to bring about these new changes, but you don’t give up. You are kind with yourself as you venture forward.
6. You help others. Part of learning, of living a big, beautiful life is about reaching out, offering a hand and lifting the people up around you so that they can shine, right along with you.
7. You find the help that you need. You know that you can’t always do it alone. You ask for help, you get advice, coaching, support, whatever you need to keep going, to keep moving forward.
8. You celebrate all the miracles and beauty and kindness around you. You rejoice in the opportunity to live this life without taking it for granted. You know that to keep creating, to keep living into your dreams, you have to stop and appreciate all that is happening, right now, in this very second.
9. You speak out. Your voice counts. What you have to say matters, so let it rip! Start a revolution, inspire a movement, ignite the passion in others.
Do it now!
What can you do today that is visionary, that makes a difference, that has you and the people around you shine? Share with me in the comments below. And, if you are stuck, trying to figure out what your passion or purpose is, stay tuned. I will be talking more about this in the next few days!
Making Money, Dreaming Big, Community and Kicking that Mom Guilt to the Curb
I am working away this weekend… planning, writing, figuring out how to make all my fun ideas happen. This is so what I love to be doing!!! And I am amazed at how true it is that when you find your passion and run with it, pretty much nothing feels like work! It is all just doing what you love!
I’ve been wanting to share about what is brewing over here at Visionary Mom. So, I decided that, instead of writing about it, I would make a little video so I can really share my excitement and give you a sneak peek at all the good stuff coming your way.
Here is me babbling away on a Saturday afternoon. Enjoy!
(if you are reading this via email, click here to watch the video)
To make sure you get a copy of that free program I talked about, just enter your email below and I will send it to you as soon as it’s ready. If you are already on an email list with Visionary Mom, you don’t need to sign up again.. I will make sure you get a copy.
