The Power of Visioning

In late December, I had a lovely session of reflection with a journal and bean cakes at the tea house at Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland’s Old Town. This was the second time I’d gone there around new years. Twice may not be a tradition, but hopefully this will be!

When I was in high school I attended a leadership workshop which emphasized the importance of visioning. The keynote speaker lead us through an exercise in which we closed our eyes and imagined what we would like to have happen with our programs in the coming year. Then he encouraged us to think bigger, about what we wanted to have happen in our lives and in the world. He then had us gather up in small groups to share these visions with others.

When one of my group mates, a redhead named Stephanie, described wanting her kitchen to smell of cinnamon I was delightfully surprised at how easy it was for me to imagine myself into that space. She had certainly taken to heart the instruction to be specific in our visions. It was the sort of place I wanted to spend a rainy afternoon. (To this day, inspired by Stephanie’s vision for her someday kitchen, one of my favorite design exercises for the workshops I teach is to explore sensory experiences. What do you want to hear in your home? What do you want to see?) 

After sharing our visions aloud with others, we took time to write them down. We were encouraged to doodle and to use color. Then we signed our names to them. Our (truly) motivational speaker told us that those who share their visions are significantly more likely to achieve them. And those who write them down are even more likely to achieve them. And those who sign them are even more likely to achieve them. (There’s this thing about accountability, it turns out. And when this workshop speaker said that people who capture their visions in writing are significantly more likely to achieve them, he meant it. There’s scientific evidence behind each of these elements of capturing. By the time I learned about these principles in my social psychology classes in college I had been employing these tricks for years.)  

I left that leadership workshop when I was sixteen years old with a vision, tucked into an envelope, which I knew was a gift to my future self. I decided to do this visioning thing each year. And while it’s taken different forms over the years, I have continued to do visioning at new years and other pivot points.

I found that teenage vision tucked in its envelope a couple months ago when I was settling back into The Lucky Penny. I spent a day on a winding journey down memory lane as I looked through the scrapbooks I had meticulously created back in the analog days of high school and college. And I found myself laughing and tearing up as I discovered how much of my vision has remained the same over the past twenty years. Even more fascinating, I found that most of the things I had jotted down have happened:

• Finding, attending, and graduating from a college that was just the right fit for me

• Owning a home of my own

• Learning to grow a garden full of flowers and food

• Attending graduate school in a fascinating field

• Living in an intentional community

• Designing and building my own home

• Living abroad

And yet there are also things I didn’t know to hope for that have also happened. I didn’t know that I’d love my college enough to stay for another six years as the community service coordinator. I didn’t know that one of my roommates would become one of my best friends. I didn’t know that Yestermorrow would become one of my great loves and that I’d get to be a teacher there as well as a student. I didn’t know that tiny houses would become A Thing and that the first house I’d design and build for myself would be on wheels. I didn’t know I’d create my own company which would enable me to travel, teach, consult ,and design. Nor did I know that I’d help to create two of the first tiny house communities in America. What adventures these have been!

As I noted in my 2019 Recap and 2020 Look Ahead, this has been a time of big transition for me. And so my visioning has stretched out this year, to capture this pivot point. Cataloguing what I have learned about myself and listening for intuition and inspiration about the future. (Amusingly, those things I jotted down decades ago that haven’t happened I’m still hoping and working to manifest. Many of these things have made it onto a permanent Life List, another visioning tool, which I loved doing at Wild Women’s Weekends in Walla Walla. I’m so curious to see what else the Universe is scheming!)

For the past nine months I’ve been using the Daily Greatness Journal. And it’s amazing to be able to see what I’ve already accomplished!

This past year I’ve been using the Daily Greatness Journal, which was recommended by my coworker Chelsea in our quarterly accountability meeting (imagine that!) It was amazing to me as I launched into the fourth quarter of using it this weekend how many of the goals I set nine months ago need to be updated since I’ve met them already.

This year my fairy godsister, Nell, recommended the Year Compass, which was created by some folks in Budapest and is available as a free tool - if you haven’t yet done your visioning for the year ahead and have a hankering for it, I’d highly recommend this guide. The week before last I sat in a teahouse with a kindred spirit, two copies of the Year Compass, and two pots of tea. After jotting them down we went to Everett House for the first soak of the new year to let those hopes and dreams really soak in.

This past weekend I spent with my auntie as we told each other stories from the past and we both did some visioning for our futures. She is looking ahead, too, so it was an honor to swap 5 Minute 5 Year life plans. (This is the quickest version of visioning I know. I invented it on a college search with a friend. Just set the timer for 5 minutes and jot down whatever your friend says about what they imagine over the next five years. When time’s up, it’s your turn! This technique has yielded some profound results when I’ve done it with friends, colleagues, and family members over the years. So fascinating to look back on these ones!)

As I my vision for this year (and beyond) crystalizes, I’ll likely share parts of it here. (That whole accountability thing.) Meanwhile, I’m curious to see what YOU envision for this year. What are you hoping for? What are you excited to manifest? Which tools do you use for visioning? Feel free to share in the comments.   

So many ways to envision the future! I’ve been enjoying a happy smattering of them during this transition. Check out the Year Compass if you’ve got a hankering to do some January visioning!