What is Faith? Do Atheists Need Faith?

What is Faith? Do Atheists Need Faith?

One of the most common things that we see is as atheists is some form of the following, “I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist”.  We see this from amateur apologists and lay theists, but we also see it from the professional apologists such as Frank Turek and Norman Geisler.  (I must say to even title a book in that fashion is a great exam

ple of apologetic dishonesty—they are out to sell books, not dabble with reality—but I digress).  The quote above is patently absurd.  Before delving into that, we first need to look at what faith is. When we look up words in the dictionary, we often see that there is more than one definition.  It is incumbent upon the user to select the definition that best fits the context.  When we look up the word “faith” in the Merriam-Webster dictionary this is what we get:

1: a : allegiance to duty or a person : loyalty
     b (1) : fidelity to one’s promises (2) : sincerity of intentions
2   a (1) : belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2) : belief in the traditional doctrines of a  religion
      b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust

The first definition (1a) we can rule out completely when discussing religion.  I do not think that at any religion views god as a person.  However, even if they did, I think that we can all agree that if we are to have allegiance or duty to a person, we not do so without evidence.  In reality, the use of faith in this sense is more akin to trust that is earned through deeds.  I have faith that my friend Bob will arrive on time because he is never late.  I have faith that my friend Bob will be there for me if I get sick because he has demonstrated to me that he is that type of person and has always been there for me.  No matter how we look at it, definition

1a has nothing to do with religion or religious faith.

Definition 1b can also be ruled out of the religious context, as it has to do with intentions and fidelity of promises and not “belief”.

This brings us to definitions 2a and 2b.  It is here that we learn how the word faith relates to belief and religion.  We immediately learn that faith relates to belief, trust, and loyalty to a god and the doctrines of a religion.  This should not surprise anyone.  We regularly refer to religions as “faiths” after all.  We hear people say I am of the “Catholic faith” or the “Lutheran faith” or the “Jewish faith” etc.  It is incredibly common for us to equate the word faith with god-belief of some sort.

Definition 2b is a key part of this entire discussion.  If one believes something on faith, they are doing so in the absence of “proof”.  This is a huge point that must not be overlooked.  In the end, after all of the apologetics, after all the posturing, the theist must at some point “punt to faith”.  We simply do not have the evidence to prove that any deities exist.  (One could argue that we do not have the evidence to show that deities do not exist.  On that point they are only partially correct, but more on that later.)  In the end, the theist must rely on faith (belief in the absence of proof) in order to believe in their god.  It is why they all use this word.  Faith is a key part of the three monotheistic religions.

The seasoned apologist, like Turek, Geisler, or Craig, will try to argue the above point.  They fail every time.

However, they continue to give lectures, participate in debates, and write books.  They do so because they are “preaching to the choir”.  I have a tremendous dislike for the professional apologist.  I find them to be incredibly intelligent, yet they often act as if refutations of their arguments do not exist.  Oh  sure, they occasionally rewrite the argument after it has been shredded by an opponent.  But it is just another canned version of the “same old thing”.  In the end, the theist needs faith.

This is incredibly important to grasp.  If the theist had evidence for god, they would not need faith.  When we have facts, we do not need faith.  Fact-based belief and faith are opposites. Further if theists had facts to support their conclusion that god(s) exist, many people who identify as atheists would likely become theist in light of that evidence.  This does not occur.  In fact, the opposite is happening, it is the secular community that is growing.  Theists will tell us that there is proof for god.  From this point we find that what they consider proof is quite shaky, subjective, or easily explained by other means.  That is not the sort of evidence that we demand in other areas of our lives.  The threshold for evidence needed for god belief is somehow less than the threshold for evidence we have for car salesmen/women…

How then can we apply all of this to an atheist? First, we must define what atheism is.  It appears to me that some theists struggle with this basic concept.  Atheism is: the LACK of belief in god(s).  There is no positive belief required for atheism.  We must pause here and acknowledge the terms agnosticism and gnostic.

Agnosticism implies that we do not have knowledge of something.  Gnosticism implies that we do have knowledge of something.  There is some confusion as to how all of these words fit together.  In short, one can be, and most likely is agnostic atheist, gnostic atheist, agnostic theist or gnostic theist.

So if faith is “firm belief in something for which there is no proof” generally related to a deity, how can an atheist, who has no positive belief need faith?  The answer is that we do not.  Atheism requires no faith.

None, zip, zero, zilch.  In fact, faith and atheism are incompatible.  Faith requires a belief and atheism does not possess belief. (Some theists will say that an atheist “believes god doesn’t exist”—more on that later).

From this point, it becomes important to understand much of what I wrote in my Burden of Proof post.

Many theists will state, “atheists must have faith that god does not exist”.  That statement is false for a few reasons.  First, most atheists are agnostic atheists.  In other words, they do not completely rule out the existence of god(s), but rather, they either find god(s) to be improbable, see no evidence that would indicate god-belief is rational, or more likely, both.  Faith does not play a role here, facts are what become important.

It is incumbent upon the theist to lay out his/her case for why an atheist should believe in god(s).  The atheist must then listen and evaluate that case.  It is incumbent upon the atheist to either accept the case for god, which if that happens, this conversation is over as they are no longer atheist, or to reject the case that has been presented.  In rejecting this case, the atheist, if they are rational, will be able to point out why they find the case for god erroneous.  They must show where the theist’s case is wrong, illogical, or missing parts.

Like any argument, the arguments for god-belief must rely on facts.  The atheist points out the absence of those facts or problems with the theists “perceived facts”.  Again, faith will not play a role here.  Remember, faith requires a positive belief of some sort (without evidence).  An atheist stating “I do not accept the evidence you have laid out for your god.  I find it faulty because of X, Y, and Z” does not need faith.  It does not take faith to show someone where and why they are incorrect.

This leads us to another common scenario.  The theist, upon realizing that the atheist has rejected his/her case for god-belief often launches into the fallacy of argument from ignorance.  Let me explain.  It is common at this point in an argument for the theist to ask “well how do you think X happened if god didn’t do it or isn’t real?”  This question is fallacious.  The answer “we don’t know yet” is an acceptable answer.  Simply because we have not yet discerned an answer for something (think origin of the cosmos) does not mean that “god exists and created it”.  The god-concept does not win by default.  It, like all other hypotheses must be vetted and proven.  It has not been.  In fact, I find that most theists do not even hold it to the same standard of evidence that they do for scientific theories or hypotheses.  Ignorance cannot lead to proof of god.

Faith is not needed, by the atheist, in the above scenario.  We do not need to have faith to say that the god-concept is a faulty answer.  This is particularly true, because as if often the case, the only truthful and rational answer is “we do not yet know for sure”.
Lastly, it is common to hear a theist ask, “…well if you believe there is no god, where is your evidence for that belief?”  This question also has problems.  First, they are mistakenly attributing a positive belief to atheism.  As previously noted most atheists are agnostic atheist, which means they do not completely rule out the idea of a god, they just find it improbable or lacking evidence—in other words, they don’t say “I believe no gods exist”.  However, many theists and atheists see that answer, though correct, to be a cop-out.

Not to worry, we can proceed without it.  If we are to do so, we must first ask the theist to define “which god” they are talking about.  This is incredibly important.  If the theist is talking about some type of abstract creator god living outside of time and space that in no way resembles any of the gods currently being worshipped by the traditions of Western religion, we can say the following.  “I do not believe in that god because there is no evidence indicating that I should”.  That would be a completely true and rational statement to make.

We do not believe everything that someone can conceive unless we can definitively disprove the idea.  That is not how we live our lives.  If that were the case, the theist asking the question MUST believe the following exist: unicorns, leprechauns, elves, centaurs, etc.—until they can definitively prove these things do not exist.

We do not believe in those things because we can prove they do not exist, but rather, because there is no evidence that leads us to believe that they do exist.  The same holds true for an abstract version of god.  No matter how we attempt to play with semantics, god belief is not justified and faith is not required to hold that opinion.

If the theist posits a specific god, for example the Christian god, things get a bit easier.  First, everything I stated in the previous paragraph is still true and relevant in this scenario.  Second, we can look at the qualities of this god and show where and why they fail to make sense logically.  As many atheists will tell you, the more specific a theist is on which god they believe, the less “agnostic” the atheist becomes.

In either case, faith is not required to “believe there is no god”.  If there is a lack of evidence for god(s) or if they god is question is a logical train wreck, the atheist is justified in believing “there is no god” once again, without relying in any way on faith.  It is the only reasonable conclusion.

In closing, faith is not necessary to be an atheist.  In fact, I am an atheist and I have zero faith in anything.

Everything that I believe can be backed up with some sort of evidence even if that evidence is an absence of evidence.  That statement may bring to mind the famous quote by Carl Sagan, “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”.  He is quite right, but…absence of evidence IS a valid reason to reasonably reject belief in something (which incidentally brings us back to agnostic atheists).  If evidence were to be presented, then we would be justified in believing the initial premise.  So could a god exist?  I suppose it is distinctly possible, depending on how you define “god”, but there is no evidence available to reasonably conclude that one does—and I can confidently say that without ever relying on faith.

Thinking and Learning Loops

In this article, I want to focus on thinking and learning loops, what they mean and the triple loop trap. This is the first in a series of articles that concentrate on the insights I’ve gained from my offline work as a learning and development consultant. This work embraces training, organisational development and coaching, (both personal and business coaching).

Writers such as Chris Argyris, Peter Senge and William Torbert all refer to systems thinking and learning and in particular to “single loop, double loop and triple loop” thinking and learning. But what does this mean and in particular, what’s the difference between double and triple loop? I like to be able to find simplicity amongst apparent complexity – it helps me to understand and I can then pass on this understanding to my clients.

For me, the definitions are as follows:

                          Single loop thinking & learning.

This refers to addressing a situation at the symptoms level. For example, you’re on a ship and it has hit a rock. As a result of the hole this has created, the ship is sinking. Single loop thinking and learning is an entirely appropriate  response – patch the hole and pump out the water… fast! You deal with what you have in front of you, taking it at face value. “It is what it is.”

                            Double loop thinking & learning.

This refers to addressing the situation at the causal level. In the above example, you’d be seeking to establish what caused the ship to go off course and hit the rocks. You’d look at what people did and at the processes and seek to establish and fix the root cause. In some situations, you could be engaged in reframing what happened, looking at it from a different perspective. Some people talk about double loop thinking and learning as”reframing the content“.

                               Triple loop thinking and learning.

Triple loop thinking and learning refers to reframing the context about ourselves or the situation. “In what other situations might this happen?” (triple loop thinking), or “In what other situations may we apply what we have learned?” (triple loop learning). Another example of triple loop thinking and learning would be asking “What practices work well in other organisations/sectors of industry that are not currently used in my organisation/sector of industry that if we did apply them, would be innovative and beneficial for us?”

                                 The Triple Loop Trap.

Triple loop thinking & learning presents a potential trap for consultants, leaders and managers. You may have reframed the context for yourself for a particular issue. The trap lies in assuming that those you engage with have done the same! Let me give you a concrete example: I recently attended an Organisational Development workshop where the hosting team had changed their thinking and learning about a particular issue.

In this case it was bringing the spiritual dimension into part of the workshop. It was interesting to witness 3 different reactions from the 70 or so highly experienced consultants who attended the workshop.

One group thought it was the wrong thing to do, that it was all “New Age, touchy feel stuff.”

The second group thought it was inappropriate as they considered spirituality to be a personal, rather than a collective, issue.

The third group were happy with it.

While the second and third group contained people who have spiritual (as opposed to religious) views, they entered the topic through different doorways. The second group started with the individual and, if appropriate, would later expand to the collective. The third group started with the collective and would narrow their focus to the individual when appropriate.

                                   

                                      Two Key Issues

There are two issues I want to highlight:

(1). If you have reframed the context for yourself/your team, you have to be aware that others will not have changed their thinking and learning. They may be open to the change or they may not. In either case, you need to brief people in advance. The exception to this would be if you wanted people to experience the journey of the change before discussing it. In that case, you have to leave time for people to discus  and reflect on:

a. What just happened?

b. What do I think/feel about what just happened?

c. What are the implications of what just happened?

d. What next ie. do I embrace the change or is it not for me?

(2). If the changed context, sometimes rather grandly described as a “paradigm shift” includes a new language, you have to make sure that everyone understands the new vocabulary.

Incidentally, some writers suggest that triple loop learning doesn’t exist in thinking and learning. Their reasoning is simple – both double and triple loops are based on reframing. Their position is deal with it as it is or find a reframe. It’s logical but I prefer to split them into the two different kinds of reframe described above.

                                    Maslow’s Level 5

I mentioned above a recent thinking and learning workshop and introducing the spiritual dimension into the work we do as consultants and coaches. I’ve discussed this with several other consultants and I’ve conclude that one way to do this is in the context of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. I know the model and the way it is taught both have limitations but the reason for using it is that many managers know about it. I’ve started to have conversations with managers about Level 5 being about self-actualisation. In practical terms, this means working with the whole being to help them to unleash s much of their potential as possible.

                     Authenticity, Effectiveness and Efficiency

For the individual, this helps them to be more authentic.

For their manager, it means the person will be more effective and efficient. Stress and burnout should also be reduced as people won’t have to compromise who they truly are in order to succeed at work.

For the consultant/trainer/coach there is a further dimension – the need for self-awareness so that at any given moment, they are aware of their feelings and thoughts and don’t project them onto the client or the client’s situation. To some extent, our work will always reflect what is going on for us in our own personal journeys. The challenge is to avoid ‘contaminating’ the client’s world view with our own issues!

In the next article I will be looking at a simple model that offers a systematic approach to thinking and learning.

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Servant Leadership Vs Self-Seeking Leadership

Looking at many of the really effective leadership role models, people like Gandhi, Mandela, Tutu, or further back in time, The Buddha or Jesus Christ, they have one thing in common: leadership based upon service rather than on dominating their followers. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to this recently and it seems to me that one of the main distinctions may be expressed on a polarity with control at one end and stewardship at the other.

And as we all are leaders in some contexts, whether at home, at work or in our social lives, I think this is a relevant issue for most of us.

Some people see leadership in terms of control; they feel the need to be in control of their resources, their possessions  the people around them; in short, they try to control their lives. The flip side, though still seeing life as a control issue, is those who cast themselves as victims, feeling out of control or having given up their control to others. We often see this in people who have been through a personal tragedy or trauma and who believe that nobody can ever understand their grief and what they have been through. Sadly, at an unconscious level, they have surrendered control to their tragedy and they view their lives through the lens of that experience.

Control-based leadership seems to place emphasis on:

• having to win an argument;
• on talking far more than listening;
• on judging the value of an idea by who has said it rather than by the merits of the argument;
• on focusing on image rather than on substance;
• self-promotion at the expense of others;
• on external recognition achievements and possessions.

The servant leaders seem to see life as being about stewardship; they view their ownership of possessions as only being temporary and see their lives, as Charlie Robertson wrote elsewhere, in terms of Givers Gain.

It seems to me that servant leadership is:

• patient;
• and compassionate;
• not enious or boastful;
• not proud and arroganct;
• not rude;
• not self-seeking;
• not easily angered;
• not into keeping score of who has ‘wronged’ them;
• focused on the truth;
• always protecting of those who need protection;
• always trusting;
• always full of hope;
• always persevering.

Is servant leadership a model that is relevant today or do you believe it to be outdated and unrealistic by today’s standards?

Tempestuous Times Require Strong Leadership!

Tempestuous Times Require Strong Leadership

I run leadership development courses and am beginning to believe that a change is needed.

Traditional Leadership Model is Antediluvian

Traditionally, leadership was seen as something done from the top of organisations. We used to trot out the old definitions that leadership was about effectiveness and management about efficient use of resources. Leadership was seen as giving direction to the organisation ( then people jumped on the vision, mission and values bandwagon and overcomplicated things!)

(1) Leadership Applies to Everyone

However, if we take a simple definition of leadership as being about choosing the right things to do, everyone in an organisation, and in their private lives, is a leader. Everyday, in work and out, we have to make decisions: shall I do this, or shall I do that? What’s the right thing to do?

(2) Leadership Means Accepting Responsibility

With leadership comes responsibility and this is where we start to run into difficulty: many people don’t want to take on responsibility. They’re quite happy sitting back, doing the minimum required, blaming everyone else (school, parents, environment grew up in, lack of opportunities, illness, the boss, the company policies, the spouse, the kids etc. etc) for the state of their lives.

In addition, there’s pressure to conform, to fit in. It starts at school with not wanting to be called a “keener” for succeeding. Then it’s get a job, get a flat/house, get married, get kids, get a few promotions, get retired etc. It’s what most people expect to do and expect everyone else to do. If you deviate from the norm, people are quick to criticise you, so you conform, sheepwalking. And you can’t be a leader and take responsibility for your life while sheepwalking – that’s an oxymoron.

(3) Leadership Means Many Things

Leadership for me is about being committed to first, getting the best out of yourself and second, helping those around you get the best out of themselves. It’s about a commitment to excellence and to daily, incremental improvement. Leadership is about not becoming discouraged when times get tough but about keeping moving forward.

We live in turbulent times and if we are to move through them, we need many people demonstrating strong leadership, people prepared to take responsibility – we can’t, and shouldn’t, rely on those at the very top.

Heaven know the main political parties have very few genuine leaders among them!

What do you think? Should we commit to helping each other to develop as leaders? If so, how should we go about developing leadership for all?

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Unleash Your Potential With These guides

Unleash Your Potential With These 8 Steps

It’s important to think about, and work on, the things that will help you to unleash your potential. When you were born, you had huge potential. The sky was the limit and you could be anyone you wanted to be. As we grow up, we tie ourselves down with the chains of conformity until the question becomes, how do you break out and unleash that huge potential God endowed you with?

       Top Tips To Unleash Your Potential

From studying the great achievers, I have been able to develop the following tips that will help you to unleash your potential.

                        Tip 1. Have a Big Vision.

You can’t unleash your potential by thinking small! Ask a small child what they are doing, or what they want to be when they grow up and they’ll usually have a big vision.

As we get older, our experiences and people around us make us reduce the size of that vision until it is a tiny shadow of its former self. Instead of helping you to unleash your potential, your find yourselves constrained more and more.

Brainstorm question: if there were no limitations, what would your vision be?

The challenge for me then became, “OK, I have this big vision, where do I start?” I always have to remind myself about the need to focus. Not always successfully as I have more than a dozen writing projects on the go at present! However, there is a common theme which is about no frill, no bull guides to business and personal development.

        

             Tip 2. Develop Strong and Healthy Self-confidence.

The Brits often accuse the Americans of being over-confident. An American response I came across was “You have to blow your own trumpet, otherwise someone else will use it as a spitoon!” My wife loves to say “A peacock without a tail is just another turkey.”

However, the trick is to not flaunt it. It’s about trusting yourself and your judgement without being afraid to ask for help. You won’t unleash your potential to the full if you don’t believe in yourself.

I was lucky when I was in my mid twenties. An older friend took me to one side and asked me “What’s the difference between arrogance and confidence?” I thought for a moment and said “It’s a narrow dividing line.” 

He was enough of a friend to say without hesitation “It is, and at the moment you are often on the wrong side of that line.”

My lesson was to let my actions show how good I was, not my mouth!

Tip 3. They all Know Themselves and Have Developed a Healthy Unconditional Self-Acceptance.

Stand in front of a mirror and ask yourself what do you see? How much do you love what’s looking back at you? You may do things sometimes that you regret but don’t worry, you can always change your behaviour. 

I have clients who cannot stand in front of a mirror and look at themselves objectively. Some find it hard to even open their eyes!

If you can’t love yourself, how can you love others? And if you can’t love yourself. You will reduce the effectiveness of any attempts to unleash your potential.

Tip 4. Understand the Power of the Mind and Learn How to Harness it Through Focus.

The mind is more powerful than we can currently define. In fact, scientists don’t even know where it is! Whether you believe in individual differentiated minds or in a collective unconscious that we tap into, one thing is certain. The mind is a powerful tool. Energy flows where attention goes, as I wrote last week.

The Ancient Chinese have know this for millennial  modern science for a decade or two. If you want to make use of the power of the mind, you need to learn to focus. I find meditation is helpful but if that’s not your scene, there are other tools to help you to unleash your potential through developing the power of your mind.

Tip 5. They all go Through Adversity and Develop Persistence and Strength as a Result.

Persistence and strength are vital. What will know one person down and out, will merely cause another person to stumble, get back up and carry on. One of the things that will determine how well you unleash your potential is how you manage stress.

I've played international sport and one of the things that determines success at level is how well people manage the stress of competition. Some seemingly average players thrive on it while others, with better skills, crumble.

Tip 6. They All Focus on the Present.

They have let go of the past and have learned to forgive. One of the tough lessons to learn if you are going to unleash your potential is to let go of the past. Often this means forgiving people for what they have done to you.

People  say to me “Are you crazy? Why should I forgive them after they did ‘….’ to me?” The thing is, forgiveness is not for their benefit, it’s for yours. It’s about setting yourself free of any hold they have over you. They have probably forgotten about the incident, so why should you let it have a hold on you?

Similarly, I’ve had clients who were still mourning the loss of a loved one, long after the person died. If this applies to you, ask yourself: “Do you think that your father/mother/ brother/ sister/ husband/wife wants to be looking down at you and seeing you being so miserable?” My mother died when I was 17 and it took me a long time to learn that the end of a life is not the end of a relationship. My mother lived on in my heart and in the hearts of all those who knew and loved her.

Tip 7. They all Know that the Quality of Their Lives Depends on the Choices They Make.

They choose to be successful and happy. I wrote about your life being governed by the quality of the choices you make so I will not repeat myself. The only thing I’d add is that in my experience, depressed people believe they have no empowering, supportive choices available to them. And if presented with one, they quickly discount it.

Tip 8. They all Understand That Life is About Service and Givers’ Gain.

Earlier this week I wrote about my experience with give to gain and rather than repeat what I wrote, click on the link to see the how you can unleash your potential through giving and being of service.

These 8 tips for helping you to unleash your potential will each, during the coming year, feature in e-books, videos and podcasts to help you to examine them in more depth. If I’ve missed something you’d like to see me cover, please write to me.

Thanks for reading and please let me know what other tips you have found personally useful in helping you to unleash your potential.

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Understand Your Business Plan’s Mission and Vision!!!

When we look at the different components and segments of the Business Plan, we find it curious that there are terms that are seemingly interchangeable, and the terms that are most often used interchangeably are mission and vision,

but there
is a vast difference between a mission and vision, and while the two concepts play-off of one another they work in very different ways.

Mission by itself, is the purpose or reason for the very existence of your business, so think of it as a general heading or direction, and a mission is what you stand for as well, should be timeless and it should rarely, if ever, change and it should always stand the test of time in that there is no end to the mission.

A vision by itself is a specific future destination or a “dream with a deadline,” and having said that you should understand that the vision should change over time, and the vision must say “yes” to some ideas and “no” to others, since it’s about what the future might be, could be, and shouldn’t be, for example, “To put a man on the moon before the end of the 1960’s.”

You must realize that mission is all about preserving the core of which provides continuity and stability to your business, like a fixed stake in the ground or the horizon limiting possibilities, and always acting conservatively, while the vision is about stimulating progress, urging continual change, compelling constant movement, expanding possibilities, and revolutionary change.

Now to build your mission always remember, a mission statement should be somewhat timeless and it should apply not only today but possibly even twenty to fifty years from now, and it should put forth a general direction or heading, by stating what it is that you stand for, and in essence, a mission can never really be achieved since it should be on going, and if it can be achieved if completed, then it is a vision not your mission, and you should think of your mission as your true north heading on your compass that will always be there pointing the way. Many times the best mission statements are also the simplest, as Microsoft’s mission is as simple as “Help entrepreneurs realize their full potential”.

To build your vision, you must ask yourself “What big goal do you want to try to achieve in five years from now, what does success look like in five years, and in five years from now, how should your business be different than it is now, and using your own metrics of success what approach should you take to accomplish in five years for you to consider your business successful? Once again, the simplest statement is many times the best, and Microsoft’s vision is as simple as, “a computer in every home running Microsoft software”.

Posted in Business Plan, Small Business | Tagged Business Plan, microsoft mission, microsoft vision, Mission,mission statement, Vision, vision statement

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What Makes a Good Coaching Mindset?

A successful coach-client relationship depends, amongst other things, on the coach having an appropriate mindset:

1. That they free their minds of any attachment to their own needs and agenda
2. That they accept everything that the client says as information, without making any judgement about it being good or bad, desirable or undesirable, right or wrong.
3. All of the input comes from the client, not from the coach; the coach can offer feedback and ask questions to help the client gain insights, but should not lead or control the client.

The question then comes up about what to do if the client asks directly for advice or help.  At this point, the coach needs to have a conversation with the client and perhaps change the nature of the relationship.

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What is your Vision and where is it taking you?

Have you ever spent time thinking about your Vision for your Life?

Vision for your life, for your work, for your family…or anything else… Over the past few months, I have been hit with this huge need to re-define my vision. In fact, lots of people so far have specifically asked me about my vision for my business and a few family have asked me about my vision for my life. Now the strange thing is that all of these people have asked me recently, within the past few weeks.

So as with most things in life, if they happen in frequency, I tend to listen.

With that in mind, I’ve started my quest to define my vision. To create it so clearly that every movement I take, is a clearly thought-out, well-defined step.

In that vein, my current vision is to launch two more companies. Yes I know, I have a lot of balls in the air right now but my purpose is clear. I am going to restructure everything so they fall within one of these two purposes.

However, before I do share with you or even before I am able to share with you. I am planning a special vision quest weekend. The purpose is to get away from everything and everyone. That means no working for clients, no technology, and to spend several days in complete solitude. And hopefully if it works out, I will be doing this more often. Perhaps several times a year. In either case, I will share with you my goals and desires once I am able to clearly articulate them. Currently, I know what I want and how I want to get it, but it takes a significant amount of time to share that with everyone. Hopefully when I return, I will be able to share with everyone in a few minutes.

Have you ever taken a significant amount of time to thinking about your future, your visions for your life? What were the results? How did it work out? Is this something that you do often?

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Limitless Possibilities Inc.(where destinies are discovered)

What’s Your Vision For Your Life?

Many people are motivated by having something to work towards; for them, having a clear vision is useful for their personal development and journey in life.
                                                          
                                                               Endless Possibilities!!!
If you are someone that needs to find a vision for yourself you will want to make sure that you are following through with what life has in store for you. You also need to make sure that you don’t get locked into one set way of achieving that vision. There are endless possibilities for everyone.  If you are looking to make something great of yourself then you will need to set some priorities and goals to set you on your way to a better and bigger future.

                                                      Three Important Questions
When you are looking for something to keep you motivated, you need to first think about what you are doing for your own life:

(1) What are the most important things to you?
(2) Are you satisfied with everything that you are doing?
(3) Are you ready for a change in your life?

If you are answering these questions truthfully, you may soon realize that maybe you are not living life to your full potential and maybe there is something better out there for you.

Make sure that you are thinking about your goals and dreams in life.  You need to think about what you want to do in your future.  Setting goals for long term and short term may be one thing that makes your life so much better and easier because you are going to have something to look forward to in the end.

                                                       Focus on What You Want
The pace of life these days mean that long term goals are difficult to make. Or more specifically, it makes it difficult to include how you are going to achieve them. Be flexible. For long term goals, focus on “what” you want and be less precise about the “how.”

Don’t let age stop you – you are never too old to dream, never too old to change. Never give up on something that you really want. If you have goals set for yourself you will want to make sure that you are doing everything possible that you can so that you can feel good about who you are.

                                                           Prepare to Work Hard
Now the unpopular bit – be prepared to work hard at your goals.  So much of today’s society is based around get rich quick, minimum effort, wishful thinking schemes. Life is not, and never has been, like that.

There is nothing that should ever stand in your way.  You need to recognize that you are the one that is going to be in control of your life.  When there is something that you really want to have, you should try to find different ways to go about them.  Finding motivation is important.  When you are energized and motivated to make something happen you will get there.

Think about what you are doing and why you are doing it. If that doesn't motivate you, you need to ask yourself if you've got the right goals! Thinking about something that makes you happy will help you get to where you need to be.  There is nothing wrong with making choices that fit your needs.  Do not be afraid to go out there and make things work for you. It is going to take time but if you end up achieving success as you have defined it , then it will be worth it.

                                                              Define Success
Only you can define what success means to you as it means balancing so many variables. Decide what are the “musts”. What must be included in your definition of success? Another way of looking at this is to list all of the things you are not, under any circumstances, prepared to sacrifice along the way. It will include key relationships, health, core values etc.. You have to be willing to provide yourself with a set of goals that are going to work for you and all of your needs.

What point is there, for example, in being a successful author of 10 books that sell well if in the process you have locked yourself away from family and friends? When you are not happy with something that you are doing you should go out there and make your life just how you want it to be.

If you find that your behavior contradicts either your vision of the future, or that you are endangering the “musts”, then you know that you need to change what you are doing.

I hope that this has been useful. In the next article I will be looking at how Abraham Lincoln approached this issue and ended up transforming himself. Have a great day and let me know what tips you would  add to this article.

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Limitless Possibilities Inc.(where destinies are discovered)