Find your ‘North Star’

Vision Exercise – Finding your North Star

When you have a clear vision of what you want to get out of life, it will become easier to make decisions and take action that will move you towards that vision.  Consider it your guiding North Star. 

Your North Star is always there.  At times it may shine brightly and guide you.  Sometimes it may be obscured from view because of all the clouds. 

In this exercise, we want to clear away some of those clouds and make your North Star shine brightly.

What you’ll need

 In order to give this exercise the best chance of success, you’ll need the following: 

• About 40 minutes of time where you’ll be free from interruptions and distractions. 
• Somewhere away from where you normally work – so rather than sitting in front of the computer, move to a different room.   Maybe go outside to a garden or park if it feels safe and comfortable.
• A pen and notepad so you can capture your vision
• A timer – use your phone but ensure you put it into flight mode first so you’re not distracted or disturbed

 When ready, get comfortable and let’s begin.

Prepare (5 minutes)

• Set a timer on your phone for five minutes.  Settle into a comfortable seated position and place both hands on your heart space and close your eyes.  For the next five minutes, simply feel your breath reaching into and opening your heart.  Try and balance your ‘in’ and ‘out’ breaths so that they’re roughly the same duration.  If it helps, count slowly in your head from 1 to 5 with each breath.
• As you settle into this breathing pattern, focus on the following question: “What is it that my heart truly desires?” Don’t force an answer, just hold the question in your mind as you breathe.  As you do, feel the warmth from your hands on your heart.  Notice the rise and fall of your breath.  Become aware of the connection to your heart.  Notice any sensations or feelings.  You might start to notice a symbol, object or colour.  Simply notice whatever emerges without judging it.

Capture (20 minutes)

• Once the 5 minutes are up, set another timer for 20 minutes.
• Grab your pen and notepad and start writing. Imagine that it’s now three years in the future.  Where are you?  What are you seeing?  What are you doing?  Who are you with?  How are you feeling?  Start capturing this vision by writing it down as if it’s happening right here and now.  Use present tense language – I’m doing… I’m feeling… I’m seeing… I’m hearing… I’m telling myself…, I’m with…, I hear people tell me…  and so on.  
• Keep writing, without stopping, until the 20 minutes have elapsed. If you start to run out of things to write, force yourself to keep going. Don’t worry about editing, writing perfectly, or whether it even makes sense.  Simply capture the stream of consciousness as it emerges.

Reflect (10 minutes)

Take 10 minutes to read back over everything that you wrote down and reflect on the following questions:

• What’s the main difference between my future vision and where I am now?
• What parts would I need to focus on to make this a reality?
• What’s holding me back from getting there?
• What are the consequences if I do nothing?
• How important is it for me to move towards that future?
• What impact will that have?
• What’s the first step?

This is simply a starting point; depending on how you got on, you may have cleared away some of the clouds and gotten a glimpse of your North Star;  or maybe you now see it shining brightly! 

Either way,   If you’d like to explore it further, why not use the contact-me button in the top corner of this page to reach out and learn how working with me might be a way to support and resource yourself on this journey.