How to decide your focus?

Hi all,

One of our members writes, "It would be easy to apply, but my greatest challenge is to figure out szeeseswhat I want to work on... health, spirituality, being with my perfect match, ways to become more prosperous... Would love some feedback."

We all approach problem solving differently - so I can only explain how I recommend we do it for the retreat - but I am not an advocate of splitting our lives into parts and then problems solving them. I guess the bottom line is this - how can we ever hope to enjoy a sense of wholeness and wonder at the whole, if we continue to use the scientific model and focus on the parts?

So what do I do when I go through a visioning (usually twice a year in January and September)? I start by putting a picture of myself in the middle (the shot above shows my current vision chart - up in my office where it becomes a backdrop to my life). Then I put all the segments I need to consider around my face (or a picture that represents my dream life) and go from there. I personally use a portable white board material so I can erase and redraw easily as I go, and its big, 2'X3' at least so that it has to be up on the wall - big enough that it relates to me and doesn't get lost in a pile on my desk. I work on it a bit, and then go on to other things. Eventually it sort of "settles" and becomes a backdrop for a while until I find I need to add to it because things have shifted.

Let me give an example from the list above - you might start by putting the list in order:

• health, - are you unhealthy? if so, this is a priority, if not it slips in the order of things
  
• spirituality, - does your life lack peace? If so then this becomes at least a backdrop
  
• being with my perfect match, - It has been my experience that this one tends to be a top priority whether or not we put it at the top - there is likely no greater gift to life than a good match. However if we are at peace, have baggage, etc we may choose to X this from the list altogether.
• ways to become more prosperous - again the degree of focus would be determined by the degree of pain. If we are poor or in more debt than we are comfortable with then perhaps this becomes a priority.

OK - now basic problem solving would have us list potential strategies and this is not a bad thing - use the diagnose step to see what others have done. BUT BEFORE YOU WANT TO MOVE INTO ACTION YOU WANT TO MEDITATE, SLEEP ON IT, etc - what ever terms you use for yourself to let it lie in your subconscious for later action. Until you are good at the PAR cycle and practice there is a great likelihood that you may move too fast, not letting your inner spirit have the chance to talk that it needs.

Besides the next retreat is less than a month away - getting your map started and some early diagnosis work done is a nice beginning to that retreat.

Love to you all,
Alana