What are you passionate about? What means the most to you? What drives you? What inspires you? What gives you energy? Your vision should be fueled by those passions. Don't settle for a vision that seems like a good idea or sounds like the kind of thing you're supposed to want to do. Pick it yourself! And base it on things you feel more passionately about than anything else in the world. Choose something that is worth the sacrifices you'll have to make, that is worth devoting a lifetime to. Your vision should be big. It should be grand. You don't have to know how you are going to get there. If you follow them, the vision and the passion will take you there.
In my life, I went from sleeping in the back of a ‘68 Ford station wagon to traveling all around the world, helping people raise their self-esteem, helping people to realize their God-given talents. Do you think that, when I was laying in the back of that station wagon, staring out at the stars and trying to get comfortable enough to fall asleep, I said to myself, "I can tell, I'm on my way to becoming an international public speaker. I see a great career for myself, traveling around the world, making people's lives better"? You can bet I didn't. I had no idea how I'd get from that old Ford to where I am today.
It didn't happen overnight. I had thirty-seven different jobs. I wasn't accepted when I was at that think tank, the Pacific Institute http://www.thepacificinstitute.us/v2/. I had to deal with alcohol in my life. I had a lot of debt. I had more than enough reasons to believe I would never become a success. I could easily have told myself I shouldn't have a dream for a better life. But lo and behold, somebody helped me raise my self-esteem. Somebody helped me understand the impact of my negative self-talk, so I could create my vision, then move toward my goals, step-by-step.
How do you follow your vision? You do it one day at a time, one step at a time, one goal at a time. Once I started to see how true this was, I was amazed. There had been times when I wouldn't have believed I would ever fulfill my dreams. But as soon as I realized it worked, I felt a deep passion for helping everybody else change their lives too!
Before long, I would be sitting at a Denny's http://www.dennys.com and hearing people complain about living dead-end lives or indulging in destructive self-talk, getting down on themselves or one another and I would want to jump in there and tell them, "You know, you don't have to live this way! Let me help you understand how to control your self-talk and how to raise your self-esteem, the way that someone once helped me." I had such a passion for sharing this experience that, sometimes, it was hard to stay in my seat!
Recognizing this passion was just the beginning. And as I thought it over, I said to myself, "Why not have a vision for raising the self-esteem of the human race? Why not make it as big as the world?" And I got excited about that. I had no idea how I was going to do it, but I knew I was going to do it-one person at a time or ten thousand people at a time. And that's how my vision was born! It is something I get excited about each and every day of my life. It causes me to read, grow and learn about who I am and who other people are too. It motivates me to constantly study and understand human thought processes.
I believe we all have tremendous resources inside us. Our real challenge is learning how to stop doing the things that block us from being all that we can be.
A vision gives you a map that moves you toward where you want to be and away from where you don't want to be. What is blocking your life right now? What things do you keep doing that aren't really what you want to be doing? They don't seem like you. They aren't in sync with who you know yourself to be. What kind of vision could take you in another direction, away from those things that are blocking you?
Your vision can be anything from being the best truck driver, to the best father or mother, to the best student or employee. The important thing is that it makes your life more meaningful because it's based on the things you truly care about the most-your deepest passions
I suggest you read my book about this amazing journey "Power to Change: You Always Have a Choice." http://www.jimjacksonlive.com/store.php?crn=205
Sometimes, when I tell people, "You always have a choice," they look at me kind of funny. There's this kind of gulp! Then their eyes get a little wider. And finally, they choke out the words, "Yeah ... I guess that's right, isn't it?" Not like they like it. They realize it puts the burden on them. There's no more blaming other people. No more saying it's not their fault that things didn't turn out differently. No victims. No bad guys. There's just the ability to make your own choices. And that gives you the power to change.
Once you really understand how amazing it is to have this power, you'll never be the same. You'll be sort of like Spiderman, when he realizes that he has the ability to fly through the air with his webs. At first, he's freaked out by it. Then he swallows hard and takes a running jump off a building. He's scared it's not going to work. But it does. And he gets it. "I can do this! It's amazing. It really blows my mind. But this is in my power!" Then nothing can stop him. He soars through the city, from building to building, fighting the bad guys and saving the day. He comes into his own. And you can too.
Living a life that's dull, unhappy and without meaning is like being Spiderman but never even giving your new powers a try!
Whether you've ever used it or not, you have the power of change. That means you can change your job, improve your relationships, have more fun, make more money or do just about anything you can think of.
But I've got news for you: It's even better than that.
You can choose to make all of that stuff more meaningful. Real quality of life isn't about having more cool stuff. It isn't about living in a bigger house or better neighborhood. It's not even about finding the perfect job or perfect mate. The quality of life is about your experience of those things.
Let me give you an example. Have you ever gone on vacation that you didn't enjoy? Have you ever spent a fortune on car or boat and found that, after the initial rush wore off, it didn't make you any happier?
That's because the quality of your life doesn't come from those things. It comes from inside of you. Cars, boats and houses don't have any meaning on their own. They only have the meaning we give to them. Even the perfect job and the perfect mate are only wonderful to us because of the way we experience them, because of the meaning they have for our lives.
How much meaning do you have in your life? The skills you'll learn from the Harley Attitude will give you a remarkable ability to achieve things, to change your life in incredibly powerful ways. But don't forget the importance of living a meaningful life as well.
A meaningful life will make you excited to get out of bed in the morning. It will make you feel satisfied with your day, when your head hits the pillow at night. It will bring you happiness and contentment that goes beyond the things you have and things you do every day.
Begin by asking yourself this: What do you value most? What do you want to be sure to accomplish before you die? Why are you here?
These are actually deep, philosophical questions. They cross most people's minds at some point, but it takes a lot of thought to answer them. It's easier to brush them aside. So that's what most people do. But take a look around. Most people aren't living fulfilling lives.
What would you do to guarantee you had more meaning in your life? Would you be willing to spend some time thinking things over, asking yourself hard questions, like: What really matters most to me?
If so, let me give you a hand. There are three key things to consider: your purpose, your vision and your values. Once you know what your purpose, your vision and your values are, you will know how to live a meaningful life. The only thing left will be setting your goals to achieve it.