Last evening I listened to a most interesting webcast given by Kevin Wilke from Nitro Marketing. He began the call speaking about his own humble beginnings and failures…and his persistence which has led to a life of wonderful abundance. Everyone on the call absolutely had to be drooling after listening to his story, filled with a renewed faith, hope, and belief that their dreams are possible too. So are yours!
We so often hear of the importance and success accompanying the creation of vision boards. Something magical happens when we visualize what it is that we want and then feel the outcome of our desires. Somehow, as if by magic, we propel that outcome to us.
Today I am reflecting on those two ends of the sandwich cookie. One end of the cookie is the visualization of our desire and the other end is the manifested outcome of our desire. What is the stuff in the middle? How do we get from one end of the cookie to the other? Might the cream stuffing be the “obvious” and “inspired” action that Jack Canfield speaks of? He says there are two kinds of actions you can take. “Obvious actions” are things like, if you want to learn how to snow ski, go to ski school. He calls “inspired actions” the action that follows once you begin the obvious actions. “The universe will start responding by sending people, resources and opportunities you need to manifest your desired result.”
The cream stuffing is meant to be yummy. We are meant to enjoy it thoroughly. However, even though we may be passionate about that stuffing, we can easily become totally overwhelmed. The desired outcome can seem so large, almost impossible. When we stop and realize what all needs to happen in order for us to realize our dream, we become paralyzed and do nothing.
Kevin Wilke did a great job on his call helping his audience to break down the overwhelming into small pieces or “milestones.” He suggests to take the big end result and break it down into little bites, the “munchies.” Create a checklist so that you can check off and celebrate the accomplishment of each little step along the way, each little munchie. Before you know it, each little step will deliver you to that dream on your vision board.
The “munchies” also give us an opportunity to celebrate the successes along the way. My motivational quote from Nightingale-Conant and John Powers this morning said, “Celebration of your achievement is as important as your achievement because success builds on success.” Powers explains, “All it takes is a little success to get the snowball rolling down the hill, gathering achievements and accomplishments along the way.”
Kevin also spoke about the importance of incorporating “Mini Blasts.” In other words, take some concentrated time away from the phone and the email to really dig into your project, uninterrupted. Your mini blast might consist of several hours or a couple of days. His description of the munchies and the mini blast reminded me of the two quality improvement techniques…”Kaizen” which stands for slow, steady, incremental improvement and “Breakthrough” which stands for a huge leap in positive progress. Both are necessary to transform our desired dream into reality.
Kevin also shared three terrific “powerful perfectionism busting techniques” that help us to break through the perfectionism that tends to hold us back:
1) Good enough
2) Something is better than nothing
3) Action attracts opportunity
Everything doesn’t have to be “perfect.” Once you determine that something is “good enough,” go ahead and put it out there and move on. There is plenty time to improve upon it later.
Kevin inspired me to commit to paper today a checklist of all the little steps leading to the outcome that I have in my mind and on my vision board. I encourage you to commit to do the same. If you don’t have a vision board, start there. What is your vision for your future? What does your dream look like? What will your life be like once you have manifested your dream? Once you have this vision firmly in your mind, get a poster board, tear out and paste pictures, or draw your desired dream. If you prefer to create a vision board online, go to www.catalogofdreams.com and create one there. Take a few minutes every day from this day forward to feel that dream become your reality…and then follow Kevin’s advice and add the cream filling. Create that checklist today to get started on those obvious and inspired actions that will make your dream come true!
