A Visionary Life

It was something I learned, slowly, over many years. There are no secrets of success – but there are keys to it that can be learned.

There are distinct stages to worthwhile learning:

First, we have to hear or read the information, and we have to understand it. To do this, we need to be open and receptive. Our minds have to be relatively quiet, and we have to be willing to listen and hear.

In the second stage, we reflect on the information, so that we relate to it personally, and assimilate it into our own experience. At this stage, we not only understand it but see its truth in our lives – and understanding becomes knowledge.

Finally, we have to live this knowledge fully, embody it, and practice it every moment of our lives. The words penetrate to our hearts, to our subconscious minds. The words then have power to affect our life.

You have the ability to create the life you want, the life that embodies your deepest dreams and your highest aspirations. Take some time to consider what you want to create in your life. It will be time well spent. Take time to dream, to fantasize, and to eventually develop a plan, a mental map, that will lead you where you want to go.

Everything we have created in our lives was first a thought, and then a feeling. When a thought and feeling are combined and held onto, it results in a focused vision, and finally manifests as something tangible. The key is to imagine your ideal scene. Clearly imagine your ideal scene; write it down on paper, and keep reviewing it.

Imagine five years have passed – or two years, if you’re impatient, or ten, if you’re patient. Imagine that everything has happened to you in the best way you can imagine. You’ve created your dreams; you’ve become a success, in everyway you can imagine, in everything you most desire. And best of all, it’s happened in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way.

What will you be doing, ideally?
What have you accomplished?
Where will you be living?
What does your home look like?
What are your relationships like?
What’s a typical day for you?

Just let your imagination go. Be as farfetched as possible. Shoot for the moon! Let it be ideal! We must challenge ourselves with the impossible. It is better to aim the spear at the moon and strike the eagle, than to aim at the eagle and strike only a rock. The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible. And at the same time remember that no matter how high one’s aspirations may be, it must be achieved step-by-step. Even the greatest castle is built one stone at a time. And as we have discovered, it is those single stone – few simple disciplines practiced every day – that actually create successes we achieve.

Be sure to write it down. Don’t worry that writing will make it too concrete. Don’t worry that it’s too big a dream. Take a sheet of paper and write “MY IDEAL SCENE” at the top. Suspend doubts and limitations and let your imagination soar.

Keep reviewing your ideal scene. Keep in your mind. This is the most important work you can do. It’s your visualization of your future. It’s the first part of your map to success - no matter what you define that success to be.

The picture of my ideal - the vision I created for myself - felt so good. Even just dreaming of it was empowering to me in some way. I knew there were voices of fears and limiting beliefs. But I don’t listen to my doubts and fears. They’ll dissolve over time.


At the top of your ideal, write, in big capital letters:

IN AN EASY AND RELAXED MANNER, IN A HEALTHY AND POSITIVE WAY, IN ITS OWN PERFECT TIME.

Then write your ideal scene.

Keep repeating them to yourself, until they sink into your subconscious mind. Before you know it, you’ll be accomplishing everything you need in an easy and relaxed manner; in a healthy and positive way, in its own perfect time.

Within your ideal scene is your vocation. Don’t just find a job – find your vocation. Discover your vocation and your mission or purpose in life, and write them down as simply and clearly as possible. Everyone of us has a vocation and a mission or purpose in life that is absolutely unique, and it’s up to each of us to discover what it is.


James Allen wrote beautifully in “”As You Think:”

Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment. Those who have no central purpose in their lives fall an easy prey to petty worries, fears, troubles, and self-pity and which lead to failure and unhappiness.

We need to conceive of a legitimate purpose in our heart, and set out to accomplish it. We should make this purpose our supreme duty, and devote ourselves to its attainment. Even if we fail again and again to accomplish our purpose – as we necessarily must until our weakness is overcome – the strength of character gained will be the measure of our true success, and this will form a new starting point for future power and triumph.

These words are worth reflecting on.


By writing down your vocation and purpose or mission, you’ve taken another step to focus your creative energies in the highest and most effective way possible. Powerful people have a calling. They know their purpose - their mission - in life.

We’ve imagined our own ideal scene, we’ve reflected on our vocation and our mission or purpose in life, and we put it all down on paper. Now we’re ready for the next key, one that’s challenging and exciting: making a list of long-term goals.

Your goals should arise out of your own desire and be emotionally exciting for you. The key to real fulfillment is to create the life you want, not the life someone else wants for you. This is not necessary the life your parents or your partner want for you, or your siblings or your friends want for you, or even the life you think you should have, because it is safe, secure, and sensible. It is the life of your dreams, whatever they may be. What do you really want? If you could be, do, or have anything, what would it be?

To live your life in your own way, to reach the goals you’ve set for yourself, to be the person you want to be – that is success.

If the words ‘billionaire entrepreneur’ leap to mind, for example, that’s certainly a challenging goal. Even if you never achieve it, the life you create by reaching for it, stretching for it, will be fulfilling for you.

Take a sheet of paper or go to your computer and write or type at the top:

IN AN EASY AND RELAXED MANNER, IN A HEALTHY AND POSITIVE WAY, IN ITS OWN PERFECT TIME.

Put into the list every worthwhile long-term goal you can think of. Read your list as often as necessary to keep those goals implanted in your mind. Rereading the list keeps you focus on your goals; it keeps them in the forefront of your mind. This put your powerful subconscious mind to work. It helps you to expand and become a more creative person, simply by repeating the goals to yourself. If they’re written clearly, it feels wonderful to repeat them. It’s stimulating, emotionally and mentally. Subconsciously you expand in exactly the way that’s necessary for you to fulfill your dreams.

The simple act of reading your goals also helps you dissolve doubts and fears, limiting beliefs and emotional blocks; it reinforces the fact that you are, in reality, a creative person.

And repeating the phrase, In an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way, in its own perfect time . . . at the beginning of your goals has a great side effect: After reading your list for several days the words sink deeply into your subconscious mind. Before you know it, without conscious effort, things that would have been stressful in the past are resolved in an easy and relaxed manner. The words automatically come to mind, just you need them, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously, and you relax and open up to more possibilities, more opportunities. And you find it’s much easier to do things in an easy and relaxed way than in a stressed-out-way.

It’s something we should all learn and remember. It makes life much easier. Repeat that phrase before you read your goals - and anytime you can remember it throughout the day. Repeat it until your subconscious accepts it as absolute truth: to do things in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way.

It’s not only possible, but it’s desirable to create a life experience for ourselves that is emotionally satisfying. We don’t need to be under constant stress at work, or frustrated at home. We don’t need to be adversely affected by our frenetic, workaholic society. We don’t need to be trapped in addictive behavior. We don’t need to feel pressured about money, or resentful about past or present relationships.

In its own perfect time is a reminder that things are unfolding with their own time schedule – and often it’s beyond our control, beyond our power to affect. Even though it’s essential to make specific timelines, it’s just as important not to get frustrated or worse yet, defeated if those goals aren’t reached as quickly as you’d like. The trick is to make clear goals, and yet be unattached to the results.

We live and grow like every other plant and animal on the planet, according to nature’s timetable. Growth takes time. As Rainer Maria Rilke wrote in his great book ‘Letter to a Young Poet’ – “ten years is nothing.” I often think of that. We live in a frenetic, work-oriented, even workaholic culture; many of us feel that looking even five years ahead is an impossibly long time.

When you reflect on any long-term goal, the short-term steps – at least the first one - becomes obvious, for every long-term goal consists of a series of short-term goals. Once you reached the first short-term goal, the next series of short-term goals become obvious. Create short-term goals that move you toward your long-term goals.

Mark Twain put it so simply and clearly:

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.

Developing these goals is an ever-changing process. It involves playing with every possibility that comes to mind, then sitting down and making a list of priorities.

A subtle but powerfully creative process is set in motion when a long-range goal is supported by focused short-term goal activities.

Create long-term goals on paper (or computer), and then break them down into short-term goals. Once you start this process, and focus firmly and clearly on your goals, you’ll discover you’ve begun to release, or connect with a mysterious energy field. The first indications of it working are usually the number of ‘coincidences’ that start happening that move you toward your goal in ways you couldn’t have foreseen. By focusing on your goal and making a step toward it, you’ve set in motion powerful creative forces. I’ve seen this happen over and over.

It’s not necessarily to know why this miracle works. All we need to know is that by daring to stretch out and reach for our highest dream, aspiration, and mission in life, we’ll receive the support we need. Goethe summed it up beautifully in two lines of poetry:

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”

Genius, power, and magic! All three come from sources beyond our conscious mind. And small steps are powerful because they affirm to our limitless, ingenious subconscious mind that we’ve created a goal of where we want to go in life, and we’ve infused ourselves with power by being willing to take whatever action is necessary to move ourselves toward that goal.

The main work, the most effective work I’ve done, has been within my mind – holding more and more of the vision of my dreams and my ideal scene in my mind. Then I take steps toward those dreams – the steps that reinforce my confidence, hope, and belief.
The most powerful work we can do is visualizing. As you focus on your goal, feel yourself attaining it. Create a picture of it in your mind – see it, as clearly as you can, and feel it as well. Keep on holding it in your mind and heart. Eventually, your visualization becomes so clear that one day you find you can step right into it.

Imagination is a much stronger force than will-power; when the two are in conflict, the imagination always wins. Let’s say you are an inveterate smoker of good cigars and decide to break yourself of the habit. You greet your teeth, shove out your chin, and solemnly declare that you are going to use your will-power to break yourself of the habit. Then suddenly comes the idea of the taste of a good cigar, its aroma and its soothing effects – the imagination goes to work and the resolution to break the habit goes out the window.

Starting with our ideal scene, we’ve created a clear mental map of where we want to go in life, and we’ve started moving step-by-step, goal-by-goal, toward it. We’re visualizing our success, and keeping the visualization fresh in our mind. Most of these keys have involved mental processes – focusing our thoughts. Now we’re ready for another key – creating what we want emotionally.

As soon as we create a worthwhile goal, we’re challenging ourselves to expand, to explore new territory - and new territory can be frightening. We’re forcing ourselves to be creative, we’ve begun our conscious evolution, and it means growing and changing and doing new things in knew ways. This brings up a lot of emotional resistance in most people.

Every goal involves taking risk, and taking risks is frightening. Every risk we take, after all, has the possibility of failure. We should be students of failure. It is part of the world experience – part of the life experience. Failure also means gaining the other side of experience that is also valuable, sometimes invaluable. It makes us grow and expand.

Failure serves an invaluable purpose: it creates the foundation for success. Failure is far more educational than success because we learn more with every failure than we do with success. Every failure I’ve had has contributed greatly to my success. My failures are the cost of my education and education is essential to succeed.

George Bernard Shaw said it very well: A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

The experience you gain from your failures, miscalculations, and poor judgment will inevitably lead you to success, if you keep at it.


All of us have psychological blocks that affect our attitudes and behavior in some ways. These blocks are built on various fears usually conditioned during our lives – usually quite early in life. They prevent us from taking risks, trying knew things, making positive changes.

Doubts, worries, and fears inhibit us. They create low self-esteem and an overly critical attitude toward ourselves and other as well. Much of what we ‘consider’ normal behavior really stems from fear: worried parents, frustrated teenagers, and highly stressful work environments are often accepted as ‘normal,’ or even inevitable, yet this situation can be changed. No universal law says that parents have to worry, teenagers have to be frustrated, and work environments have to be stressful. These emotional states can be changed. The challenge is to take an honest look at them, and discover how to move beyond them.
If you haven’t created the kind of life you want, if you haven’t attained the kind of success you dream of, then some psychological blocks need to be examined, and to let go of.

Core beliefs are self-fulfilling prophecies. If you believe you can, or if you believe you can’t, you’re right. Henry Ford said that. He knew what he was talking about.


Watch what you say. So many people constantly repeat negative, limiting thoughts and words, and then wonder why their lives are a mess. “This job is killing me.” “That makes me sick.” “I am so stupid.” etc. These words, like all words, send powerful messages to your subconscious mind and eventually manifest in your life. Words have a great deal of power, for good or for ill.


Ultimately, by doing what feels right, in every moment, we’re led step-by-step to the greatest success we can imagine. Our feelings are our guide - and they are much more reliable than our rational, logical mind. The voice of our intuition is directly connected with our feelings. Simply tuning in to your feelings - to the voice of your intuition. Our intuitive voice is always calm and clear. It’s supportive. It’s always positive. It always feels right.

Over the time it became perfectly clear to me, whenever I let the “compass” within guide me, life always seemed to work out. The decisions I made turned out right not only for me, but also for other as well. I will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle me.

Trust your intuition. Trust this loving, subtle voice at the center of your being. Your intuition can be your constant companion, and it will always guide you to your highest good. Life is not only magical when we live by our inner voice but also extremely efficient. From the life-changing to the mundane, your intuition is always your best guide.

When our head is guiding us, we THINK we know what’s going on, but when we’re being guided by intuition, we KNOW what’s going on. And that knowing comes from the place within us – as the Bible says “the secret place of the most high.” Our intuition always knows what’s best for us and our circumstances. Intuition is inner knowing.

Talk to your inner wisdom throughout the day, and ask for guidance whenever you need it. Turn off the radio and television once in a while so that you regularly have periods of silence. Take time away from people, so that you can focus within at times. Spend some quiet time each day getting in touch with the powers that watch over you. Solitude, away from the everyday distractions, opens channels to an intuitive inner voice.

There are so many forms of mediation, active and passive. Taking a walk alone can be a wonderful meditation. So can gardening, driving – anything where you’re alone with your thoughts.

For many people, life is so chaotic and demanding that they lose their focus as they move through each day. The most concrete block to a person’s intuition is having a disorganized life. If too many responsibilities are burying you alive, there will be no opportunity for reflection, as you will be too busy frantically holding everything together. Frantic, disorganized, dramatic people have very low levels of awareness. This kind of chaos creates an emotional anxiety and shut down all intuitive ability. A life lived that way is a life lived in drama and frustration.


Desires are natural, desires are wonderful. Desires are the driving force in our endless evolution. It’s our attachment to those desires that causes the problem. It’s when we can’t accept things the way they are. Learning detachment makes your life a lot easier. Relationships are smoother, because you’re not insisting that the others have to change for you to be happy. Things are less frustrating in your work and in your relationship with money, once you learn detachment.

Keep visualizing, keep affirming that your goal is being created in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way, in its own perfect time. And be detached to the results. Enjoy yourself in the present moment, enjoy who you are, and what you have, enjoy the others around you.

It’s a matter of balance, as always, the middle way: You need to be passionate about your dreams, to desire your goals, but you also need to be detached to the results, to whatever unfolds day-by-day.

If you get too passionate and serious, you can get too attached to wanting certain results – and happiness will slip by you. You forget to enjoy the journey because you’re always wanting to be at the destination. The key to your happiness and fulfillment is by following your true desires and enjoying the process.


An exercise in visualization

Take a deep breath and relax. As you relax, enjoy the feeling of simply breathing, simply relaxing.

Now picture whatever you want to create as clearly and as detail as you can. Imagine your ideal scene as clearly as you can, as if you have already created it, and you are enjoying it . . . Picture as many details as possible . . . . Spend a minute or two focusing on it, enjoying the scene you’re creating.

Take a moment to enjoy and savor whatever vision you’ve created. Add a few more details and visualize until it feels as if it already exists in your life.

Finish by taking one more deep, relaxing breath and affirm to yourself, “This or something better is now manifesting for the highest good of all concerned. So be it – so it is!”

Repeat this exercise – focusing on the same thing – at least four or five times a week, preferably everyday. Soon within two or three weeks you will have absorbed your visualization deeply into your subconscious mind, and you’ll begin to see results in your life. Some exciting ‘coincidences’ (synchronicities) will start to happen.