I took Jack Canfield’s advice from his book, The Success Principles, about visualizing the success you want and the life you want to have, and then acting as if it were already happening.

In a recent seminar with young entrepreneurs themed ‘Vision 2013’, everyone was prompted to attend a morning cocktail party as if it were 2013 (5 years from the present time) and as if all of their 5-year goals had been accomplished. The attendees considered business (professional) goals of their client base, financial situation, their assets and their network of prospects and influential people. They considered their personal goals of health, family, marital status, financial abundance, achievements and travel. They had a clear picture of their dream homes, dream cars, dream partners as well as their philanthropic contributions to society. The fun part was witnessing participants come to the party as if it were 2013 and act as if they had manifested all that they desired. They bragged about their business successes, dressed their parts and even brought in props of signage for their businesses and creative artwork that they had been commissioned to create.

After the party portion of the seminar, I asked attendees how they felt. Of course, an explanation really wasn’t needed. Their radiant smiles and stances of confidence proved that they felt indeed proud of who they were and what they had accomplished in the past five years. I concluded with them that even though circumstances had not changed on the outside of their lives, that they could visualize their plan and begin acting as if it were already happening on the inside. This puts us on the frequency of receiving our intentions .. but it’s not quite the end of the road to success.

I have always said that the distance between knowledge and results is action. The difference between dreams and fantasies are the actions we take to back up our dreams and turn them into reality. This is where the rubber meets the road toward success. That being said, fantasizing about what you want and visualizing it to merely ‘place your order with the universe’ is not quite sufficient. You have to take the next step and do what needs to be done to progress toward your goals.

It is estimated that only 3% of the worlds population sets goals. I bet most people reading this are not new to the benefits of goal setting; however, the difference between knowing about goal setting, and doing what it takes to ensure that your actions and behaviour match your goals are two completely different (yet must do) steps up the ladder of your success.

What you say you want means nothing if you are not willing to pay the price to obtain it. Visualizing and acting as if it were five years in the future was a huge undertaking. For myself, it took me days to get very clear about what I want in 2013, and then chunk it down into a workable timeline, where I could then see what tasks need to be acted upon in order for everything to get accomplished. Now I need to act as if I already have what I want in 2013, and begin to do the things to create that experience.

The key to effective leadership is having a clear vision of what you want, how you will get it and being able to communicate it well to others.

What is your vision for 2013?

Penny