Subject: Celebrating the Journey: Life Dreaming: Create A Vision

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Welcome to Celebrating the Journey!
Friday, January 24, 2003
Issue #104

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Welcome Notes
2. Life Dreaming: Create A Vision
3. Coaching: Vision Questions
4. Quotes for the Journey
5. Celebrating Out Loud!
6. Reading for the Journey
7. Humor: More of Life’s Imponderables

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1. Welcome Notes

The morning fog has cleared, and I write this on my back
patio in the warmth of the California sun. Mellow surf
sounds drift over the fence, and my house is deep in
preparation for the birthday party I am giving myself this
weekend. 40 friends gathering for good food and
connection, music and laughter, to celebrate not only my
birthday but life in general.

Welcome to our new subscribers. I am gratified that you
have chosen to join our family. We welcome your input as
to how CTJ can be of the most value to you. Please feel free
to contact us at CTJ@tothesummit.com.

With all the talk of war these days, the concept of peace has
been an especially prominent one for me the last week or so.
It is my strong belief that we can each affect what happens
on this planet by how we live our own lives. When we live
with peace and love in our hearts, that pebble sends circles
out in far-reaching ways beyond our imaginations. Jack
Kornfield’s book The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness
and Peace, described in Reading for the Journey, speaks
directly to that kind of peace-based living. It is a simple,
lovely little book with a profound message that can impact
our planet in a great way. Please, please read this book.

I wish you each a peaceful and loving week.

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2. Life Dreaming: Create A Vision

I often speak and write about living the life we REALLY
want. What does the life you REALLY want look like? Feel
like? Smell like? Sound like? Who shares it with you? Who
works for you, with you? What color are the walls of your
livingroom? Can you hear the ocean from your patio?

Too often we create goals based on where we are now and
where we think we want to go rather than taking the time
to visualize where we REALLY want to be in a year, in 5
years, in 10 years.

Even when those goals are Value based (see last week’s CTJ
at https://www.tothesummit.com/archive), we limit
ourselves – and the effectiveness of the chosen goals – by not
including a vision of what we REALLY want our lives to be
as part of the foundation from which the goals are created.

Creating this vision is NOT about just wondering what your
life might be like in 5 years. It is NOT about any fear you
might have that it will look exactly as it does now. It is NOT
about coming from any sense of lack or stuckness or limits.

Creating this vision IS about lifting yourself from the weight
of your present life and riding the wings of your
imagination into the future. It IS about giving yourself
permission to dream a big dream. It IS about seeing yourself
in a life that is balanced financially, spiritually, socially,
intellectually, physically, personally – exactly the way you
REALLY want it.

Create your vision from abundance, from your values, from
your heart. Then walk toward it, one goal, one step at a
time.

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3. Coaching: Vision Questions

Schedule a time this week when you can take an hour of
time, by yourself, to create your vision. Schedule it right
now! Think you don’t have the time? You do; you need only
get a bit creative. This exercise is worth giving up an hour of
sleep!

Imagine your dream home. See it as you drive up the
driveway or enter the lobby. Walk up to the door and step
inside. What do you notice? What’s the first thing you see?
What sounds do you hear in the house? Is there music?
What kind of music? Are there voices? Whose voices are
they? Your personal assistant’s voice? Your trainer’s voice?
Your children’s voices? Your partner’s voice?

Notice the smells in the house. Perhaps a warm waft of
flavor from the kitchen; the fragrance of the rose garden
through the open windows; scented candles.

How do these sounds and smells resonate with you? How
do they impact you?

Who lives in the house with you? How enriching are your
relationships with them? How does it feel to love and be
loved in this way? Who are the friends in your life and how
do those friendships nurture you? Who do you have on
your Team — the folks who are available to support you in
living this life of abundance?

How are you in five years? Are you healthier? More fit?
What kind of clothes are you wearing? Is your hair
different? Let the ideal you appear in your vision.

Are you connected with a Higher Power? Do you have a
sense of the Divine within you? How is your spirituality
manifesting in this envisioned world? Do you have peace of
mind in this life? Serenity, perhaps even bliss?

How are you giving back to the world? What form has your
professional life taken? Where are you doing service? How
are you tithing?

Let it be a big dream, a huge dream, perhaps a seemingly
impossible dream. Take off all the limits, all the yeah but’s,
all the I can’t’s, and see where your vision takes you. See
yourself living a life of balance: financially, spiritually,
socially, intellectually, physically, personally. You have the
life you REALLY want. And it’s GREAT!

Create your dream life as if it is happening right now.
Experience living in that life, right now, today. Rather than
thinking about the life you want, think and feel FROM it.

Tonight, just before you go to sleep, imagine this marvelous
life in clear detail. Tomorrow, wake up inside your dream
world. Make it your first thought. See it, touch it, taste, hear
it, smell it, feel it.

Do this for 90 days. Each day the vision becomes clearer and
more real. You’ll be amazed at what begins to happen in
your life. To quote Mike Dooley: “Thoughts become things.”
The act of envisioning the life you REALLY want begins the
process of manifesting it.

And places another solid stone in the foundation from which
you can build meaningful, reachable, successful goals which,
in turn, form the pathway to living this fabulous life.

Create the vision of the life you really want, think and feel
FROM that vision, and use it to create your goals. Take the
actions to reach those goals and, one step at a time, you’ll be
LIVING the life you really want sooner than you can
imagine!

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4. Quotes

Live out of your imagination, not your history.
Stephen Covey

Examine what you believe to be impossible, then change
your belief.
Dr. Wayne Dyer

Why not go out on a limb? Isn’t that where the fruit is?
Frank Scully

Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.
Charles F. Kettering

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5. Celebrating Out Loud

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more
there is in life to celebrate.
Oprah Winfrey

January 15: Patty S. celebrated her 19th sobriety
anniversary. At age 40 that means she has been sober
almost half her life! A joyous and blessed celebration. Send
your virtual birthday songs to Patty at
mailto:ttocspj@att.net.

January 18: I celebrated my 55th birthday with 3 close
friends at the marvelous Verakai, Cirque du Soleil’s newest
show. It was an evening of true celebration: my own spirit
and that of all of those beings on this wonderful planet.

January 18: Hundreds of thousands of people celebrated
peace by marching in San Francisco and Washington, DC
and smaller venues all across the country. Join those voices
in expressing your desire for peace by adding your name at
http://www.moveon.org/winwithoutwar/ to ask Bush to
Let the Inspections Work.

Mare Wheeler celebrates the discovery that she does,
indeed, have values and is a person of high integrity. “Until I
read your newsletter and did your exercise, I did not realize
I had values. I have done and been so many things in my
life, I thought there wasn’t much that I value… I know
differently now, and it really seems amazing to me – like I
am not just someone who trekked soullessly through her
life…I am a person of integrity…Thanks for the inspiration!”
Share your aha’s about values with Mare at
mailto:Wheeler.Mare@mayo.edu

Know someone who’s celebrating a great occasion? Or a
small one? What better gift than to forward them a copy
of Celebrating the Journey with a celebratory wish in it.
Let’s spread the joy! To celebrate a friend’s birthday or aha
or win (or your own!) click
mailto:celebrations@tothesummit.com and tell us the story.
We all gain in sharing one another’s celebrations.

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6. Reading for the Journey

The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace by Jack
Kornfield.

Please read this book. It has the capacity to change your life;
to change the state of this planet. It is as important a book as
I have read in a long, long time.

As it is valuable for each of us to create the vision of our
ideal life, so is it vital that we each create and hold and act on
the vision we hold for our planet and all its inhabitants.

In this time of turmoil and uncertainty Jack Kornfield has
written an invitation to remember that no matter where we

are and what we face, within our hearts peace is possible.
And when we hold peace in our hearts, no matter what is
going on around us, we not only improve the quality of our
own lives, we bring the energy of peace to the town, the
state, the country, the planet on which we live.

I have never read a book whose words calm me the way
these words do. This book has affected me at a profound
level. It is now a part of my morning routine, just a page or
two, and begins my day with healing, peace and
compassion.

If everyone on the planet read this book, it could, quite
simply, change everything. Please, please read it.

It is available at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553802054/tothesummit.

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7. Humor: More of Life’s Imponderables

These provocative quotes and thoughts come from Stephen
Hendren from the UK via Phil Humbert (Phil has a fabulous
free weekly e-mail newsletter. I highly recommend you
subscribe at http://www.philiphumbert.com.) Enjoy!

Be alert, your country needs lerts.

If the universe is infinitely big AND constantly expanding,
what is it expanding into?

Where do socks go that disappear in the washer? Are they
the cause of the expanding universe?

If you can keep a cool head when all around you are losing
theirs, perhaps you haven’t fully grasped the situation.

Whoever uses the phrase “easy as taking candy from a
baby” never tried taking candy from a baby.

Whether the chicken or egg came first all depends on how
they arranged the menu.

If too many cooks spoil the broth, put fewer in.

A bird in the hand may be worth two in the bush but it
can’t beat one in the oven.

Show respect for the dead, they’re in the majority.

Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out
to get you.

And finally, one of life’s great mysteries – Why do they
put frosted glass in the toilets on the Concorde? Who do
they expect to look in at 60,000 feet?

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Give yourself the gift of a peaceful and abundant vision this
week, and as always, Celebrate Life!

Namaste, Margo

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Hiring a Life Coach is a great way to be supported in
making this year the best year of your life. Margo has a few
slots open for motivated clients who are committed to
taking the actions to create the life you dream of living. To
schedule a consultation, send an e-mail to
mailto:margo@tothesummit.com. Visit our website at
https://www.tothesummit.com for additional resources
and tools.

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My purpose in publishing Celebrating the Journey is to
provide you with resources, motivation, inspiration and
energy for YOUR journey of creating success and freedom
in all areas of your life. CTJ will use stories from my life
and others, coaching tips and resources, quotes and
humor to deliver a learning experience that can enhance
your life. I am always looking for comments, ideas and
ways to improve CTJ. I welcome your e-mails at
mailto:margo@tothesummit.com.