Resolutions vs. "Ideal Scenes"

David St. Lawrence left this comment about my focus on business planning:

I'm glad to see that you include business plans as part of your overall strategy. You may already have done this, but you can gain an entirely different perspective by writing up the ideal scene for your business and your personal life before going much further. An ideal scene can give you a view of your future from the 10,000 foot level.

David pointed me to his post on how creating an ideal scene in you mind can be far more effective than making a traditional "resolution." His tips:

1. Write with all the certainty that you can muster. If you feel that this is a useless exercise, don't bother wasting your time. Go back to watching TV. Do not write anything that you have doubts about. This is not a wish list. This is a description of things that need to happen and you are willing to make happen.

2. Write as though it is happening and write those things you know you can do: For example, "I network until I find a new job." "We work out a plan to home school our children." "I find extra work to pay off my loan."

3. Do not allow anyone to belittle your ideal scene. If this is a scene that others in the family must share, you must let everyone contribute to the description of this future state that we call an ideal scene. If you can't get agreement, then you will have to work out an ideal scene for yourself.

4. Be aware that achievement of your ideal scene depends on the intentions of those involved. An ideal scene that involves getting your spouse to give up smoking, or your boss to act more decent, is unlikely to occur unless they participate in the process.

5. Take a look at how your ideal scene will affect others. You may wish to rewrite it so that others will not be negatively impacted when your ideal scene occurs. Otherwise, you may feel guilty which will produce intense counter-intention to your predicted future and can prevent it from happening.

6. If there are known barriers, try not to use conditional statements about overcoming them. Rather than, "We move to Vermont, if we can find a good home for Lassie, or Grandfather," write something like, "We work out a way that Lassie, or Grandfather, gets to live where he wants and then we move to Vermont."

David's suggestions are very timely for me. In my innaugural post, I set forth my resolutions. I'll try to recast them, as David suggests, as my "ideal scenes" this weekend.