Become a Visionary in Your Own Life & Work

Is your work big enough for your spirit, grand enough for your passion and deep enough for your sense of meaning? These are not expectations that are unrealistic or ridiculous to expect. The desire to have your work fully engage your dreams and nourish your yet to be manifested talents is your birthright.

Your work can be of any dimension: a scientist, a salesperson, an assembly line worker, a mogul or a healthcare worker. It needs neither to carry status, power, or high visibility. It only needs to offer an opportunity to engage your energies and to propel you towards the awesome responsibility of bringing yourself fully to it. Your work can be the place in which you can create yourself.

The essence of the Visionary is to fully envision your truth and manifest it. If you think that this skill is only for the gifted, the artisan or the shaman, think again. It exists as a potentiality for all of us. When you create a new way of understanding something or turn a thought into a reality, when you make a dream come true, or successfully complete a project that you have never tackled before, you are walking the Path of the Visionary.

Each time one of us makes such a contribution, all of us can become more empowered and enlightened. We achieve a glimpse beyond ourselves and experience truth or reality in a new and expanded way.

Thus, as you create yourself, you are empowering and co-creating others' visions of what is possible for them. That's why the contribution of only one person can make such a difference.

"I will act as if what I do makes a difference." --William James.

How might you act differently if you really believed that you made a difference? How many times have you said or heard others say, "But, I am only one person, what can I do?" and then, by the nature of that statement, we do nothing; take no affirmative action; and fail to set forth because we believe that the task before us seems hopeless.

What might you take on in your role as employee, manager, volunteer, parent, business owner or politician that would manifest this belief? How might you act differently, listen harder, try out something new or just dare yourself and others around you to set the bar beyond where it has been?

For many it is exciting at first to think that you have this power. But then it feels overwhelming, intimidating and too much responsibility. We are afraid to show up in our lives in a big way - and, I think it's so because we are less afraid of failing than we are of succeeding. So many people say, "What if I fail?" What if you do? Is that really any worse than where you were before you tried?

However, if you succeed, it may not be as easy to wiggle away from the challenge the next time. People may expect even more from you then and your success has becomes on public view rather than your avoidance which remains a private detour. We are found out to be bigger and more powerful than before.

When you express your life's dream, or your sense of whom or what you are made of, your inner Visionary appears. In "Wishcraft: How to Get What You Really Want", author Barbara Sher presents how vital it is that we create a vision of the future that expands our sense of what's possible and as closely as possible creates an image of our ideal life. In order for our visions to be realized they must be placed, to some degree, within the context of the rules of the external world. But most importantly, they must really reflect the true nature of your spirit.

Hiding or denying who you really are or who you aspire to be can cause you to become resentful, blaming and hopeless. However, it is your choice to articulate to yourself and then to others, who you imagine yourself as being and becoming. Act out of your authentic self and work on tuning into what is true and real for you and the path of the Visionary opens.

You are empowering yourself to become the person you are envisioning.

Don't be shy. Think out loud. Give that hidden, still reflection of yourself a voice.

- Who are you?

_ What are you capable of?

_ If you weren't concerned about sounding arrogant, who is the YOU that you would envision?

_ What are your special gifts, talents, and ways of being that can make a difference?

What's stopping you?

Dreams without an audible voice can not be achieved. Keeping your visions a secret guarantees that they remain hidden. What you don't declare to yourself and others cannot come into being. Dreams and visions can only be empowered and energized when you find the courage to give them a voice and birth them out loud.

What you can imagine already exists - the mere act of imagining is an act of creation. Your creation is only waiting for you to believe and act "as if" they are true for them to take a form beyond words, dreams and what ifs.

Leslie Malin, MSW, President of Management by Design is a co-author of "The Essential Coaching Book: Secrets to a Winning Life," and is the author of two forthcoming books: "Meeting Yourself on the Way to Work: Finding Meaning from 9 to 5" and "HireSmart: A Straight Forward How-To Guide for Business Owners & Their Managers".

As an entrepreneur, coach, consultant and therapist, she guides independent professionals, solopreneurs and small business owners who want to create their success by choice, not by chance.

Her expertise in working with people in career transition or seeking their first job provides mastery of the job-search process.

Undue the "default thinking" in your life, get your FREE Copy of "As a Man Thinketh", by James Allen by emailing Leslie at results@lesliemalin.com with your contact information (Full name and email)and be signed up for her ezine, "On the Way". Browse her website at http://www.lesliemalincoach.com

Leslie is available for public speaking engagements, executive retreats and motivational seminars. Contact her at: results@lesliemalin.com