When I think about my future goals and I do not see the steps to getting to those goals I receive an image in my mind of my future destination suspended in air away from me with no road leading towards it. This image represents my frustration at times when what I want seems out of reach and I can not clearly see the ways to achieve my goals.

This is understandable when I think about my natural tendencies. I have always been able to visualize the big picture and think in terms of abstract concepts. I can see, smell, hear, and feel the land I would like to have in the future and what it can produce in terms of food, comfort, community, and the legacy for future generations. I do not do as well with figuring out the details to reach that goal.

I've never been a materialistic person and have lived a very fulfilled life with very little at times, but I have been working to visualize creative opportunities for more money in my life lately. I have no desire for money in and of itself, but for the ability to purchase land and the materials to build a personal home and a community center.

I once lived with a woman in a community who told me that the best way to achieve a goal is to visualize yourself already having achieved it and then to work in backwards steps from that goal. In other words, see yourself already having what you want and then think about the last thing you do to get it, the next to last thing, and work backwards to the first step you would take. She has since gone on to starting a community in Baja Mexico, so it obviously worked for her!

Right now I am firmly using the principles of creative visualization and picturing already completing my degree, already working in a capacity of community service, and already having the land and then I will start to visualize building the road to get to those goals.

And I will learn to also take it all one day at a time. . .