A Vision without a Task is but a Dream,
A Task without a Vision is mere drudgery,
But a Vision with a Task can change the world.
– Attrib. to Black Elk (Sioux)
Last week I invited you to explore some of the Formative Influences that have shaped or affected Who You Are Today. This can help you to identify some sources of your greatest strengths as well as recurring challenges that have been important in your life.
Now then, what are your Goals for all that you might wish to Become?
As Peoples around the world establish Origin Tales that define their values and history, so too, people in any culture will seek to unfold and fulfill their highest potentials. As an individual in your own patterned life experience, you can choose to go beyond self-limiting conditions to pursue your “Bliss”, in Joseph Campbell’s terms. Once you recognize what your goals are and what your greatest strengths and most persistent challenges (i.e. “Dragons” or ‘Guardians of the Threshold’) are, you can aim to work through those apparent limitations and chart a course—as it were—to Live Your Dream. This is where life mapping becomes of value. It is a flexible, creative approach to envisioning where you have been, where you are and where you are going or desire to yet arrive; more like interacting with a dynamic GPS device than a fixed, ‘linear’ map.
In a Life Path Mapping activity posted for the original Better Endings blog, I asked a question I would like to repeat for this week’s Life Mapping prompt:
What (or,Whom) Do You Want to Be When You “Grow Up”?
To respond, to seek your Vision, first it will be helpful to consider, what might it mean for YOU to “Grow Up?” From wherever you are Now, what can evolving into the Person you desire to fully Become possibly look like? In terms of VALUES, how shall you be living in full expression of your deepest Fulfillment?
So okay then, folks, I am inviting you to PLAY! to freely envision your future Self emerging from who you are Now yet without unnecessary limitations that might hold you back now to any extent.
It is good if you feel you already ARE expressing all that you wish to Be. Some may feel there is little reason to project a different future from extending your already satisfying Now. But even if you might say today, “I am Living my Bliss, already,” I encourage you to stretch a bit further. How can you unfold the present potentials of your fulfilling life to MAXIMIZE living Your Dream?
And why? Not just for you alone…but for all who will benefit from your gifts and who might be inspired by your personal/spiritual fulfillment to achieve their own!
Better Endings 