Stay aligned with your Vision

Excerpt from one of my Write-Out-Loud sessions with Lisa Abbate fromWordmountain

Lisa: Now we've talked about the nuts and bolts kind of practicality, but then we also talked about what are the nuts and bolts also of staying aligned with your vision, and you have this in here as 'Accessing you core self, spirit, heart to stay aligned with your vision', and I think it's really important for individuals who are solo-preneurs or entrepreneurs to really find ways to stay on their path and stay motivated or stay strong and believe them in themselves.

So what are some of the ways that you offer or can advise people on maintaining those, whether it's different meditations or things like that? Can you speak about that a little?

Joanna: I do have some guided meditations that I offer that can help practitioners on stay on their path. Those are available, and then other techniques that I do with clients include things like doing a vision board, like for my book, and I have one for clients. I have a vision board for the type of client I'm hoping to attract. In the past, for the type of business I wanted to build, vision boards can be really helpful doing affirmations - I actually do affirmation books with my clients where we take a bunch of index cards, especially if you can get them in a flip book, and you write down these different affirmations and goals in the flip book and then you look at it every day to remind yourself of where you're headed.

Lisa: Okay. Can you talk a little bit about vision boards? Because some people know what they are and some people don't. They haven't really done it before so I think that's a helpful thing to talk about - the process of creating one, what a vision board is?

Joanna: Yeah. So there are two kind of ways you can do a vision board, but the idea of the vision board is that you're accessing your subconscious, creative side of your mind. So you're using images. You can use some words, but the idea of the images is that it's accessing a different part of your brain than the thinking, kind of verbal brain. And when you look at the vision board once it's created where it has all these images that represent the things that you want to attract into your life, it kind of just helps them stay present with you in your energy and as you go throughout your days. If you look at it every day, it helps you make decisions that keep you aligned with your vision.

I really find that they're helpful and it's a really great tool for pulling out those magazines and just creating a time to work on it. It's part of the inner work I think, of this kind of business where you've some nice music and maybe a candle lit and quiet time, and you're really just focusing in on what you're trying to attract.

Lisa: So in another words, it's time well-spent.

Joanna: Yes, exactly.

Lisa: And it's not just a fluffy exercise. It's a core exercise.

Joanna: And it's a holistic exercise because it's allowing you to exercise, use other parts of your brain that, if you're focused on the nuts and bolts of your business and you're really working that left-side of your brain, it's nice to balance that out with this more creative work. Another thing that I've been doing lately is mandalas, coloring them, where I have books that have many mandalas in them and I find one that represents some process or something that I'm trying to accomplish or work with. And then, just the act of coloring it in and focusing on the topic of what this mandala represents helps me just align with that process.

Lisa: That's great.

Joanna: Yeah. So there are a lot of different ways that people can stay on task, but in this type of heart-centered business, it is really important to engage that side, the creative side, and the spiritual.

Lisa: That's really, really great. I mean I have some ideas of my own, but for manifestos, and what do you do in terms of creating your own manifesto? And what is that and how do you do it?

Joanna: It's kind of like a personal mission statement where you're declaring what you're setting out to do and how you want to set out to do it. It's really where you're putting your mission and values together and it's kind of a personal mission.

But you can also do one for your business as well. You know specific for the business, like we have one for the healing center. We provide these personal growth opportunities. We provide services that are heart-centered. Our goal is to be a resource for the community on the North Shore, and so you can kind of lay those all out for your business or what you hope the business will become.

Lisa: Okay, that's really good. It's like different. It's a mission, but not necessarily one sentence and it goes a little bit deeper than the standard corporate mission statement.

Joanna: Right.

Lisa: Okay. Those are really good. I think I need to do a few of those myself. I do. I get into the nuts and bolts and I never take the time for that. I think that it I so important to take the time to do it. I do it. When I am taking a walk I think about it but it is always not to be doing something else and that at the same time.

Joanna: Yes. It is like taking yourself away from the to-do list for a while and doing that. That other work can really help because that's also where your insights and breakthroughs are going to come; you are accessing that side of yourself.

Lisa: That's a good line. 'Where your insights and breakthroughs come true'

Joanna: Yeah. Especially if you're feeling stuck, pounding away at it doesn't necessarily help you get through it. So stepping back and accessing your creative side, whether it is through a vision-board, through meditation, through a mandala, or whatever it is that can help you tap into the answer or the solution that you need.

Lisa: Oh I think that is really good. These are all really good.

Do you need guidance and support in identifying your ideal client, crafting your offer and creating action plans? Join us for the Summer Apprenticeship for Heart-Centered Entrepreneurs. Or if you prefer one-on-one guidance, the Heartsick Employee to Heart-centered Entrepreneur program may be for you.