Sarah's Quest: A Guest Blog by Sarah Elliott

Over the years I have found that some of the most powerful explanations of the program and discipline that I have developed have come from other people. What follows is just such an example.

Sarah Elliott has thrived on this discipline for several years now and her experience and some instructions to what she calls “The Vision Quest,” and I refer to as A DreamQuest”  are here today.

John Henry I‘m going to share a very personal story. It’s about a person and a process that have had a tremendous positive impact on me. I hope it inspires you to think differently…to dream bigger…to take more meaningful action…to empower more possibilities in your life, your organization, and your community.I am privileged to call John Henry McDonald a friend and mentor. He is a very special person, beloved by many, with an inspiring rags to riches story.A 21-day Vision QuestIn 2013, John Henry shared his 21-Day Vision Quest exercise with me. During this process, you exercise your dream muscle by journaling every day for 21 days straight. If you’re curious, you can learn more about the process here. In John Henry’s words, “It’s an exercise in possibilities, not probabilities.”As he explained the process to me over lunch, John Henry showed me some of his journals from years past. He told numerous stories about how the people, events and circumstances in his 21-day Vision Quest journals manifested into reality. I hung on to his every word.As intrigued as I was by his stories, I was skeptical as to how this exercise could apply to me. I am a CPA. I considered myself to be a very analytical person. I certainly never labeled myself as “creative” or a “dreamer.” I wasn’t sure how this “visioning” business was going to work.But John Henry and his amazing stories intrigued me. With an open mind and a burning curiosity, I decided to give it a shot.My 21-day experimentWhen I first sat down to try this visioning process, I realized I had been living my life primarily on a day-to-day basis. I lacked clarity about what I wanted my future to look like. Sure, I had a vague, general idea about the big things, like a happy family and a successful career. But I had never envisioned in detail what that might actually look like.The first week or so of the 21 Day Vision Quest was nothing short of awkward for me. I wasn’t even sure how to “dream.” I kept questioning whether or not I was doing this “the right way.” (By the way – there is no “right” or “wrong” way to do this. The point is to just do it! You’ll get better with practice and learn what works best for you.) My poor dream muscle was pretty weak…a sad, little muscle that had been long neglected. I managed to eke out short bullet point lists for the different areas of my life each day.But after 21 days straight of exercise, my dream muscle got stronger. I started flexing…even showing off a little. On the 21st day, I wrote pages of prose describing a day in my future life.Fast forward to today. My dream muscle is better conditioned. Now, I’m in “maintenance mode.” I dream of the future on a daily basis. It has become one of my favorite habits. My mind sees new possibilities all the time, even in the middle of the night. I am a different person.I recently paged through my own 21-day Vision Quest journals from the past 3 years. Joyfully, I realized that many of the dreams I described on the pages of my journals have already come to pass. Oftentimes, they unfolded in ways that were better than I imagined.Why is dreaming important?We are accustomed to hearing other people tell us why our ideas or dreams won’t work…why they’re not “realistic.” Although well meaning, those who love us sometimes discourage us from dreaming. They believe it is their responsibility to “bring us back to reality.” They want to protect us in case we fail to make our dreams a reality.As a result, many of us live according to a belief system that discourages us from dreaming big. So we end up playing small, afraid to fail. Or even worse – we never even realize that more is possible.I believe that dreaming is an essential part of a fulfilling life. It encourages us to grow, stretch and evolve. It allows us to tap into our unlimited potential. And, it’s fun!Since I’ve made space in my life to create a clear vision of who I want to be, what I want to contribute and where I want to go, I can:

• See new possibilities for who I can become and what I can accomplish.
• Create personal goals and guide my actions in service to my vision.
• Enroll others in my vision and collaborate with them to create a new, bigger vision.
• Notice and take advantage of opportunities to help make my vision a reality as the right people, events and circumstances show up in my life.
• Embody my future self now.
• Evaluate how certain decisions may fit into my vision.

Action without vision is only passing time, vision without action is merely day dreaming, but vision with action can change the world.” – Nelson Mandela

 When was the last time you gave yourself permission to dream?Go ahead…just do it. I dare you to dream big.All my best,Sarah(This post was originally published here.) 

The Worst Day of My Life

A series of tragedies led from a young marriage to life on the streets, ultimately ending in devastating physical injury and hopeless alcoholism. Terrible news? No, not really. All of that strife made it so that I had to face the fact that my misfortunes were all on account of actions I had taken; not actions that had been taken against me.Marital strife? That was me. That was my doing.Failure in college? Me.Failures in the Military? Mine.On December 25th of 1973 I looked into a mirror, and the bloated, red faced reflection staring back made this fact obvious: I didn’t drink because I had bad luck; I have bad luck because of my drinking.If that horrible set of circumstances led to a better way of life, well, who am I to say what a bad day looks like?

My World’s Now Upside Down

When my world was prioritized to achieve wealth, motivation came with stress, stress brought misery, and wealth was acquired by a miserable man: me.Fear-driven motivation often caused me to make decisionsthat were less than wise, creating business decisions that ultimately benefited no one very well. I always felt like I was losing, always felt behind, never felt fulfilled, and so the cycle of loss continued.When I changed my priorities, making my spiritual practice the most important, I noticed that this curious little miracle started to occur. As my stress began to wane, and as my emotional life became more ebullient, I noticed that my health got better, My thinking became clearer and wealth seemed to be attracted to me rather than achieved by me. Serendipitously, wealth appeared as if by magic.

First Blog: The Five Areas of Endeavor

The Five Areas of EndeavorI’ve divided my life into five areas I call the Five Areas of Endeavor. They are five aspects of my life that I can exercise control over and make decisions concerning their outcomes. I can prioritize them. Let’s talk about those priorities.1. I have a spiritual essence2. I am an emotional being3. I have mental abilities4. My physical health is important5. The material world has often been at the top of my priorities.Much of my life has been spent in the material, mental and physical realms, dedicated to gathering the things that I can easily see, doing those things that bring obvious results.My education has been important because developing my mind made my professional life increasingly better and enhanced my whole life. As I received more certifications I was able to attract better clients. But as I endeavored mentally I affected the material realm. More certifications attract better clients that have more money and pay larger fees.The physical realm is quite important but for different reasons. Quitting smoking, losing weight, tracking blood pressure, and reducing high cholesterol have all given me more stamina, and a much higher quality of life. Having more energy to do things means you get more done. You accomplish more.With all these areas under my own self-direction, and me moving forward in all of them, you would think that I’d have been happy, wouldn’t you? That hadn’t proven to be true. Baffling, really. You’d think that a healthy bank account, good health and a 12 year marriage to a beautiful woman would mean automatic happiness. Every goal set-every goal achieved. Right? Wrong. Enter the spiritual area.The very act of achievement creates its own maelstrom, its own self-defeating environment. The grander the goal, the greater the stress. Hunting and gathering created its own illnesses. Achievement made me sick because it created higher expectations. So all that I captured was captured by an unhappy, unfulfilled man.Can you really just check accomplishments off a list? That is, those goals that have been achieved by motivation? You see, I believe that motivation is fueled by fear. And fear creates stress, stress creates unhappiness, and so the illness grows.Happiness is a decision, It’s an attitude. I can pick it. And when I do it propels me in directions I chose and love. It is the great gift that comes with our creation-- a free will. I can decide to be happy no matter what my present circumstances. And here is an interesting observation: I have found that although wealth could never bring me happiness, an attitude of gratitude can. Happiness seems to have attracted tons of good fortune.When I am focused spiritually I am balanced emotionally and I can learn without fear. Maybe you can too.This is my first blog. I have introduced a lot of grand concepts here. You can expect them to reappear in future blogs. Look for the category “Five Areas of Endeavor.”