There’s an expression that Poet Robbie Burns is famous for: Best-laid plans of mice and men oft(en) go astray, and best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley. In other words, things often go wrong despite your well laid plans. (The gang aft a-gley version is Scots dialect, and comes from Robert Burns’ poem “To a Mouse.”)

So let’s talk about that; the despair, disappointment and dread that can arise with sudden, drastic unexpected change:
You’ve set your Vision and goals of what you want to create, live, and be, however very quickly, things outside of your control have altered the speed or course of that Vision.  Life happens, unexpected events occur and one of two things can result:

1. Feelings of anxiety or trauma can take over leading you to unconsciously focus on what you “don’t want,” which will lead to more of the same… exactly what you don’t want, including the life-sucking pit that sucks you into emotional vortexes of worry and helplessness.

2. Or,  you will focus on what you DO want, including your positive emotional state, which will create just that; the reality of joy that can co-exist with challenge. And that’s freedom! Knowing that no matter what happens you’ll be okay… that you can and will handle it. It’s the expansion of the soul that is occuring – like a container that gets stronger to “hold” all of what you are going through, returning you to a sense of safety.

The beauty of absolutely keeping your focus only on what you do want to feel and create, is the  INSTANT relief it provides:

• By switching your focus from  stress and negative emotion, you take control of what you want to  experience in the moment; you claim the power of alternate dimensions or realities that support, not tear down
• You think more creatively and begin to see new  possibilities; you become more effective; remember negative emotion impedes the brain
• You increase  focus and a positive mental attitude for consistency in effectiveness, solutions and inspired, authentic action
• Creativity, expansiveness, intuition  and mind power expand (as opposed to the reverse)
• Course correction, an essential yet easily overlooked tool to personal growth becomes more automatic
• And most importantly, keeping your focus on what you DO want, helps to foster Mindfulness which is about paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and non-Judgmentally (Jon Kabat-Zinn)

So how best to create these benefits and avoid the potential hazards that can trip us up in following our Vision?

1. Think of yourself as an athlete in training.
By visioning you decided to make your life better; that includes releasing the pain of resisting change as it comes up.

2. Know your Stress Patterns
They’re the habits that switch your focus from “do want” to “don’t want” – what triggers them? Brainstorm solutions so you’re prepared for life’s predictable curve balls.

3. Course correct those stress patterns through awareness and focus… acting in unity with your vision in itself creates unification.

4. Keep your focus on what you love to do. All the time!
As Susan Jeffers warned in Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway,  “Your mind only takes off on its own when you’re not telling it what to do”.

5. Keep a Gratitude/Blessings Journal – it increases your vibrational frequency; the energy that aligns you to your higher values, and magnetics of manifesting heart’s desire.