Day 2 - Picture yourself

This is a beginning of my dream wall.  Your eye gets used to the same pictures so I change it up often.  I only had one magazine that I could cut up so it is sparse, but it is a start.  I will get bigger and I will reach the goals that these pictures represent.  As I do nightly yoga and meditation, I visualize my goals - who I want to become.  I can already feel it working.  It is amazing.

Think of your favorite holiday, or simply a family gathering on a Sunday afternoon. 
Now picture yourself in this setting 20 years from now. 
Picture your family. 
Who is there?
What are the smells?
What is the general feeling?
What are people doing?

This exercise is something I did recently.  I have spent a lot of time meditating on this scene.  I have it in my mind in great detail, the sounds, the smells, the colors.  I can feel it; it is so strong.  This is what I base my day on.  It has changed the way I treat my children.  If I want them to WANT to be with me and their siblings, I have to nurture that relationship now.  If I want there to be lots of laughing and fun, I have to nurture those things in my everyday life.  Whatever environment YOU CREATE right now will be the environment of your life in the future.  The only way to change the future is to change the environment of right now.  It is circular.  It is always true.  There is no someday we will all get along.  It doesn't just happen.  You have to change it.  This doesn't mean perfection.  It means a work in progress is started now so that in 20 years, all the pieces will be put into place and the vision will become a reality.

I'm still adding details to my scene.  I will soon share it with Glenn.  Then, and I'm really excited for this, I'm going to share it with my kids.  Once I have introduced our future gatherings to my kids, I will let them add details.  Then, EVERYTHING we do will be focused on this vision.  If the boys are fighting, we will talk about how that behavior is going to affect the vision.  I have already harped on the reasons we need to be kind right now. I have already told them that their siblings can be the greatest support system they could ever get.  They know this.  They work on it.  But a picture in their mind will have more power.
I believe in visualization.  I won several state championship swimming titles, not because I had a "swimmer's body" etc.  but I believe a large part was based on the visualization that I immersed myself in.  It works.  Try it.  Put pictures up to remind you.  Have this ingrained in your mind.  Pray for it.  You will become it.  This I know.

Do not make excuses.  There are so many.  You are a being  with more potential than you realize.  There are people who have overcome bigger obstacles than you have.  It is possible - if you believe.  "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it will achieve."

Happiness. Enthusiasm. Optimism.