By Sherry Lowry with Jane Ross

The first Your Vision on Hotwheels workshop we gave in July ‘09 grew out of a special request. Some of our participants had already done the vision board workshop with us and wanted to take one element of their vision board and get a plan for some next steps. How were they were going to bring that vision to life, personally or professionally?

A hotwheels visioneer in the process of mapping her vision

We also had clients who were a little intimidated by the vision board process. They had a purpose statement or a life intention that they had documented or they had a whole list of values and they weren’t quite sure what to do with that. So they wanted to work with Anna, Honoria and me in a group format to get legs under that purpose statement. They wanted help to put some of their ideas into action.

Your Vision on Hotwheels is a half a day workshop. At our July workshop, every participant created a visual path or map. Many of them incorporated art into that. Whether they came in with a vision board or not, they each ended up with a separate hotwheels roadmap that they took away.

Your Vision on Hotwheels: next workshop, Saturday November 21, 2009

Registration information will be posted on EventBrite soon.

Or register by calling Anna 512-431-6619

By Sherry Lowry with Jane Ross

We adored the photo from the September 26 Vision Board workshop of participant Bernard Brown’s feet standing in paper cuttings—delightful. He was so engrossed. As he was cutting he was standing up and the paper was falling at his feet.

In the flow at the Vision Board workshop

It was a perfect example of somebody going into a flow experience. It had every element of how do you get in flow with the process? That is when time vanishes, not thinking of any physical needs or anything. You are just very engrossed and engaged in the process. It’s a very creative moment.

Here’s what Bernard had to say about the vision boarding process from his own perspective.

“I knew I was coming in with this being my first vision board that there would be a fair amount of questions for me: things I would be processing and working through. I didn’t come in with a fixed set of things I was exploring. I took it on like, this is my chance to familiarize myself with the process, engage in it, and see what the subconscious would say and see what would show up in the community.

“We were helping each other locate different pictures and images based on what we had shared earlier about our aspirations. I was taking a chance to get ideas. I also believe that sometimes things come through, through others. I may not be conscious of something, but somebody else may be in tune with it. Through dialogue or conversation it may show up. That is what has been going on for me.

“I think one of the gifts of this workshop is to create a process or method which could be continually renewing. I don’t see this board as a static thing. It is going to pulse. As I achieve or I clear some of the items I have put on my board I will be creating room for new opportunities.

“I am a great proponent of the concept of the hot wheels or focusing or having groups. I don’t know what form it will take. But the conversation is not a one time deal. It evolves into a more focused effort. It starts from the broad, you identify a goal then you go for it. Then you come back and you have community through workshops or we continually re-design our vision boards becoming more and more successful in terms of achievement.”

One of the Bridging Futures team’s goals is to have a voluntary community we stay connected with of people who have been through a process like this who want to know others who are going through it and learn from each other.

Saturday’s all-day visioning workshop included people who had created vision boards before, either with the Bridging Futures techniques or at other stages of their lives.

We’ve been curious to find out what some of our ‘repeat’ visioneers got out of their second or third visioning experience in a single year. It might seem natural that once a year is enough to propel you forward with a thousand things to implement!

What’s fascinating, however, is that our folks are telling us that each “repeat visioning” experience was richer than the last.

Why? Here are some early readings:

• Comfort level with visioning from the inside out and using yourself as your personal guide leads to more comfort with more visioning
• Successful results from earlier visioning creates the desire to get clearer and more specific on the next go round!
• Excitement and anticipation to focus on one area–e.g. a medical career or travel–flows perfectly into a visioning experience”

COMFORT

Repeat visioneers found a natural flow for finding images and arranging them in patterns that corresponded to their visions.  They also helped others who were new to the process. Sharing knowledge of how to bring mental visions into an actual visualized artifact with new people was a powerful element of the day.  Conversations sprung up about the symbolism of visual images and how they fit into the overall vision of each participant.

Visioning the path toward the vision.

CLARITY AND EXCITEMENT

Repeat visioneers presenting their vision boards contrasted their experience making their first vision board with their new board.

In one case the previous vision board was filled completely, jammed with potential directions, reflecting a confused state of mind yet an openness to many directions.

In contrast, Saturday’s board was on a confident bright red backing with organized collections of visual symbols and words contrasted by open clean spaces heading in a specific direction. This arrangement really showed off the elements carefully selected and clearly arranged on the board.  The message was I am getting somewhere fast, and this is where I’m going, and this is how I’m going to get there.  This visioneer had a plan and this vision board was a visual outline of the plan clearly showing the excitement and drive toward the vision.  I am sure this board will be framed and hang in the office to inspire and re-energize.

TAKE TIME FOR YOUR VISION

Is your personal or business vision constant?  Do the elements change as you learn more about where you are going and your options to achieve your goals?  Many people find that taking the time to sketch out ideas visually, recognize patterns and interrelated elements is time well spent.  A visioning session is a time of reflection and goal setting.  We’ve found that people who sign up for repeat visioning sessions feel that setting appointments for visioning is time well scheduled.

BUSINESS AND TEAM VISIONS

Do you know that Bridging Futures Visioning sessions are productive for teams, organizations, and conference break out sessions?  Ask Bridging Futures about how business and non-profit visioning services fit with your organization.

(Bridging Futures founder Sherry Lowry explains all in this continuation of her interview with Jane Ross)

After our learning-social open house last month, we realized it would be very useful for people to get a better sense of what we’re doing. Anna and I were talking about the different offerings that we extend and realized people aren’t aware of all the things we offer and how they are related. All of a sudden, Anna picked up a napkin and started sketching out this path that captured what we do at Bridging Futures as VPM: vision, productivity, and message. Honoria took Anna’s sketch and turned it into this beautiful graphic that’s now on our home page.

The anchor point of the graphic is V for Vision. We offer a series of workshops that are all related to some stage of vision, whether it’s creating vision, documenting the vision, planning the strategy of the vision, or executing into the vision.

So far we’ve hosted two vision board full-day workshops and we have another one coming up on September 26, 2009. Participants have included small business owners who are conceptualizing a new direction. We’re also talking fairly young people who are just out of school and are in the workforce or aspiring to be in the workforce. We’ve also had people who are in transition. They are recreating their vision or they’ve had a vision that they haven’t been able to get started on and they wanted to get more definition on it.

We’ve had owners of very large companies. We’ve had attorneys who have been practicing for 20-30 years. We’ve had aeronautical engineers. They all came for different reasons. Some of them were very surprising reasons.

A lot of people came for professional purposes but they end up realizing, behind closed doors, it’s all quite personal anyway. Even though they may have planned to do a professional transition board, they ended up adding personal aspects to their board. Because we all take the whole person to work.

Be careful what you ask for, because this is powerful stuff!

Find your vision.

VISION WORKSHOP:
Get a clear picture of your desired future!

Walk away with a big picture of what you truly want in your life–in any or all areas that you choose–health, wealth, spirituality, relationships, career, creativity, etc.!!!

Leave with insight, understanding, a poster sized picture, and words from your inner guidance recorded on paper!

Fee is $150 plus Dutch treat lunch at the restaurant. Snacks and drinks provided.

Saturday, September 26 10am-4pm at El Mercado Restaurant, 1302 South First St. in Austin, TX

We did a quick survey of 10 graduates of our three 2009 Vision Board and Vision on Hot Wheels sessions and these are the outcomes reported:

I. Career/business

-Created lucrative job position (where none existed) in same company but in dream location
-Found job that provides a good livelihood in field of technical expertise while allowing plenty of time for art
-Started new business
-Changed career direction that is more exciting
-Set up new mutually-beneficial business partnerships
-Is being groomed for promotion

II. Relationships
-Found ideal love relationship (5 different examples of love finding!)
-Improving relationship with life partner
-Improved relationship/acceptance/closeness with teenager
-Feels more confident in self and asks for what he wants for more often

III. Creativity/Renewal
-Color and design inspiration for interior of new home
-Created low cost 4-week vacation in tropical resort providing renewal and physical health benefits

IV. Health
-Started physical fitness program (3)
-Lost weight (2)

We’d love to see you at this event because it really works!

Registration for September 26, 2009 via EventBrite:
http://vb3.EventBrite.com

You may also register by simply calling Anna 512-431-6619

Keep up! Join our Facebook “Bridging Futures Austin”  Group.

(Excerpt from an interview with Bridging Futures founder Sherry Lowry, conducted and edited by Jane Ross)

In 2009, for the first time in history, we have five generations in the workforce. We have people in their 70s (like me) who have no intention of retiring anytime soon. At the same time, we have teens coming into the workforce as interns. These teens have to be trained, managed, and led.

What Bridging Futures has to offer in the way of training tools is unique. We work with our clients to take the wisdom that’s in their archives and help them to get that packaged for a wider audience. As part of the process, we work with them to tweak the content and update the presentation so that the language and the level of interactivity works for a young audience. We want it to appeal to the sound-bite, comics-oriented, learn-on-the-run culture of the 20-somethings.  We’ve found that the 30-somethings also learn best from the same approach. We make sure that the content is produced for easy and effective adult learning and won’t put young people to sleep.

Sherry Lowry at the Bridging Futures Learning Social, August 09. Photo credit Rino Pizzi

Together, the founders of Bridging Futures, Anna, Honoria, and I, have 125 years of active career experience in the workforce. All three of us are very interested in and capable at working with a wide range of generations. And we all like and are involved in social media, too. Anna’s company, Interaction Design, has a great background in corporate training, and Honoria’s doctorate is in Curriculum and Instruction. So our focus is to make sure that the end-users of the Bridging Futures products are fully engaged in their learning process. That’s what it’s going to require for corporations to train and manage effectively the youngest members of their workforce.

Career is top goal.

At our Bridging Futures open house, we asked 50 people to rank what areas were most important to them when they envisioned their most desired future.

Tops, not surprisingly, was career. In this time of economic recession and market turmoils, there is a lot of anxiety around career, with some wishing to shift from areas of less personal interest to one of greater satisfaction and others simply desiring a job that will provide a living. Relationships, always popular was #2 with most of those referring to a desire to find a romantic partner. Health and fitness wasn’t as high in this group as Adventure, and dead last was wealth–an interesting split-off from the notion of career.

Our conclusion is that we want to offer Visioning services that focus on Career, Business, and Workplace issues.

Summary of the tallied questionnaire:

1. Career 2.4
2. Relationships 3.0
3. Adventure 3.2
4. Spirituality 3.5
5. Health& Fitness 4.0
6.  Family 4.3
7. Wealth 4.7

– Anna Carroll

Learn more details and register for the September 26, 2009 all day Visioning Workshop at http://www.vb3.eventbrite.com

Anna Carroll at Bridging Futures Learning Social 2009

It was fascinating to visit with so many smart and innovative friends and collaborators in diverse areas that include software for neighborhood community building, artists, lawyers, organizational consulting, new entrepreneurs in many fields, an arts organization for disabled people, web developers, technical trainers, writers, social media experts, and much, much more….

It felt like two parties on Thursday night and then Saturday morning. My bedroom got turned into the “MasterMind” breakout room, with pictures projected on wall and chairs all around the table (bed). We discussed the Knowledge to Gold concept of moving your expertise into a marketable online product or service. Some already have products developed and just need a “Master Mine” support group to keep them moving
toward their goal. Others are thinking about what they’d like to develop, whether or not they have a full-time job–and are still at the Visioning stage. And still others already services to offer through their website
and are wanting to turn up the volume to the world!

The whole MasterMind concept of declaring what you want to accomplish and exchanging support with others who want to do the same was appealing to just about all.

– Anna Carroll
Photo by Rino Pizzi

Honoria Starbuck holding up a Vision sign.

Photo by Rino Pizzi

Bridging Futures had a party. The social gathering featured learning stations, research data gathering, and funky prizes from Toy Joy. My job was to introduce the Bridging Futures set of visioning offerings.

We have 3 Visioning products. First, a Vision Board Workshop is a wide open exploration of visual symbols for personal goals. The workshop begins with guided meditation to welcome participants into a safe yet exciting mode to explore their unique visions. Participants collage vision boards from magazine pages, pictures from their collections, words, and drawings. The vision boards can be very poetic or visually lovely.  The finished vision boards serve as a reminder when one’s busy life clouds your goals and visions.

The next offering in the vision line is the Your Vision on Hot Wheels workshop in which participants get to project manage one of the visions laid out on the vision board. This follow-up workshop is a practical set of practices designed to build a map of steps to actually realize visions.

Finally, we offer a specifically business focused vision session called Sculpting your Business Vision. This workshop includes visual images and practical techniques applied to actualizing a business vision. Our organizational development team developed this Business Visioning offering that can be customized for a start-up all the way to a corporate executive or team.

The visioning offerings are fun, yet deeply moving, and have strong application to daily life and success. Learn more at bridgingfutures.com

– Honoria Starbuck

The Bridging Futures’ August 2009 Learning Social was a fun opening to new directions in visioning, mastermind collaborations and product creation.

The break out sessions in Mastermind Series options, Visioning sessions, products and services all lead to conversations and discoveries about interconnecting skills and knowledge.

Data collection is leading to new initiatives in the Bridging Futures community.
Please contribute to our research by answering any or all of the following questions.

1. E-commerce research
What product(s) or service(s) would you like to sell online?

2. Mastermind research
What goal(s) could a mastermind group help you with?

3. Visioning research
Please rank your choices of what you your want to envision for your future:
____ Health and fitness
____ Career
____ Wealth
____ Family
____ Relationships
____ Spirituality
____ Adventure

4. What’s Next research
What would you like to know more about Bridging Futures?

Send your answers to Sherry@sherrylowry.com or place your answers in comments.