Planning for the greater picture, it is one of the hardest habits for us to develop.  Most of us don’t have any definite ideas when it comes to a greater picture. 

That’s ok, the details increase exponentially as the grandeur of the vision grows, so making definite plans likely wouldn’t work very well.  Still healthy people need a vision; they need something big to aim for even if they will never reach it.  Better yet, of course, is to make those big crazy dreams a reality.  Whether your dream is grand or humble my wish is that you never attain it, while ever enriching your life.

It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to move beyond the ‘how’ of a dream into the nebulous.  We can calculate the obvious but not the extraordinary.  In order to reach that extraordinary it is only necessary that we focus on being in our highest integrity in the moment; by doing that we open hidden doors.

For most people it is quite possible to imagine getting a raise, another contract or a couple more sales a month.  It’s a matter of simply working hard and doing the list of things those above you have told you to do.  Many of us have the capacity to imagine an exponential increase of income by taking on a second job, moving away to ‘where the market is better’ or by getting a better education.  For the majority this is where imagination ends; beyond the visible cause and effect we are left with, well, buy a lottery ticket.  And so dreams remain just that, the unlikely pipedream that none believe will ever come to fruition.

There is nothing wrong with any of these strategies but in all cases this kind of action is putting the cart before the horse, it is working on the level of physical exertion and is limited to the amount of physical energy we have.  More importantly this kind of strategy never taps into our true power, that of the unconscious.  Because of this it never brings our great visions to us. 

Most of our daily actions come directly out of our subconscious patterns of thought and because they come from unconscious patterns they often serve more to destroy our opportunities than to enhance them.  I’m sure you can all recall moments of self-sabotage, I know I certainly can.  In fact at times in my life I thought I was the master of  such self-sabotage. 

Likewise we all have patterns of behavior that will naturally elevate us into a world of greater opportunity.  The key is to become consciously aware of those patterns and cultivate the ones that work.

Just recently a young man who is working at a local light industry in town was refused a raise that he was eligible for.  His work record was perfect, he was on time every day and he worked hard, always seeking to improve his productivity.  He was refused because he has plans to travel abroad.