Ginny Wilson-Peters' Blog

“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”   Carl Jung

I remember smiling and thinking at the time, “This young man is going to accomplish exactly what he is talking about”.  Almost two years ago I had been invited by River Action to work with their Youth Board and other young leaders in the Quad Cities.  After sharing my own perspective on leadership I walked them through a reflective exercise where they imagined what their life would look like in five or ten years.

I sat back and watched them draw their visions of the future.  Fifteen minutes later they shared their stories.  Many of them spoke with an amazing amount of confidence about their futures.   One of the people attending was Chad Driscoll.  At the time Chad was working for Big Brothers/Big Sisters  of the Quad Cities as their Americorps Program Director.   But his five year vision clearly showed him working in Des Moines.  And the passion and conviction he spoke with made me smile.

Last week I received the following e-mail from Chad, which I am sharing with his permission.

Anyways, one of the activities you did with us was have us draw our vision, or future plans, or where we would like to see ourselves down the road.  So what I drew was the state of Iowa with marks on it of where I have been, where I am now, and where I would like to go moving forward.  Where I wanted to go was to be in Des Moines and have a state job or work within an organization there or possibly in politics but my focus was and is on service and giving back to the community.

 Well I wanted to share with you that I am going to be starting a new job in Des Moines in a couple weeks!!  I will be a Program Officer with the Iowa Commission on Volunteer Service and will oversee a variety of education focused AmeriCorps Programs in the state of Iowa as well as other initiatives that come through the office.  I am very excited about this career move, although I am sad to leave the Quad Cities and Big Brothers Big Sisters.  I wanted to share this with you because this was part of the idea of what I drew during that session a couple years ago and I still have that piece of paper at home!

 The other cool thing about how all this developed was they approached me when this opening came available.  I was not looking or seeking another job.  In my current role, I do work with them pretty regularly so they have seen my work and product and know what I am capable of.  So you never know who is watching!

In her article “Vision, Learning to Manage the Dream” Nancy Fredericks talks about the power that comes from creating a vision.

Power Comes with Vision. As we emotionally and passionately create our vision, we connect our internal resources to opportunities outside of ourselves that support us in achieving our vision.  Internally, radiating from within the oldest part of our brain stem is a small network of cells called our reticular activating system (RAS).  The RAS provides us with the unique function of filtering incoming information to support our goals and visions.  Without us even knowing it, this powerful internal tool is automatically aligning us with the external world so that we are in the right place at the right time. The system is always working to produce the results we request, whether positive or negative. The unique aspect of this system is that it is always working for you; so when you don’t use it to support yourself consciously, it will be taking its lead from your unconscious. If you aren’t getting fulfilling results in your life, take a look at what you are unconsciously creating.

Lean more at www.nancyfredericks.com/vision/.