When we moved to our new home last August, I had a vision for the front of our house. The former owners had done an incredible job of keeping things beautiful and manicured, but I had a different vision. While our yard was lovely, it wasn’t what I wanted and envisioned for our family.

I wanted to be able to sit on our front porch and have a clear view our yard. My focus wasn’t privacy, like many people desire when they plant trees and bushes around their houses. I wanted to be able to clearly see people passing by so I could wave and say hello instead of having big bushes that blocked that view in the name of “privacy.”  I wanted to save the red bud tree and several other bushes by transplanting them in the back yard even though some people said it would be a lot less expensive and work to just buy new ones. And I wanted flowers upon flowers in our garden beds – not manicured plants and bushes like most people.

That clear and focused vision informed a big overhaul of our front and back yards. We called on “our guy” from church who does mostly huge corporate projects but so graciously said he’d help us. As we walked around our yard, we shared our vision with him.

“We can do that,” he said.

And a few weeks later, the big excavator came. So did new bushes and plants. And so did over 300 tulips. I got my hands dirty and helped out. The vision we had of the garden beds informed how I went about planting those flowers. With dirt in my fingernails and a small trowel, I got down on my hands and knees and planted those tulips.

Then we waited. We wondered if what we transplanted and what we newly planted would survive the winter and blossom.

Just this weekend, even with the 74 mph winds that hit the east coast, I can see tulips beginning to rise.

I smiled walking up to our house the other day, recalling how I planted those!  I was proud of my work. I was proud that I held strong to a vision I had for open spaces, color and beauty.  I’m proud that I didn’t get distracted by what other people may want, or what may be most popular.  I am so happy to see signs that the vision I had was coming along beautifully.  I had trusted that vision. We had gathered the necessary resources to plant the right seeds for that vision to take shape. We had taken a risk.  And now I was seeing the beginnings of that beautiful vision coming to life.

The same goes for us.  Whether we have want to create a garden or a life that is full of joy and love, we have to create a vision.

In a world of distraction, hurry, and fragmentation, the sacred voice within us can get drowned out by all the noise. We can get distracted by what others are doing and their manicured visions, rather than what our vision is.  We can get distracted by “Oh, she’s doing it that way.  Maybe that’s how I should be doing it.”  “Ohhh he’s doing it differently than I am. Maybe I’m doing it wrong.”  And “Well, I seem to be the only one who doesn’t like….and who likes….”  We can get sucked into the abyss of endless options of “more.”

In working with hundreds of women, I see how many of us are exhausted because of this: “decision fatigue.”

Our attention is being pulled in so many different directions in our day.  We make way too many choices when it comes to everyday decisions like what to wear, what to eat, where to shop, if we should open respond to that “ping” from an incoming text, and if we should click on that ad that comes up while we are writing an email.  The thousands of little decisions we have to make rob us of having clear and focused energy to make the bigger decisions that matter most.

What I’ve also noticed is this:  when people come to me and they are experiencing “decision fatigue,” they share stories of feeling irritable, short-tempered, unfocused, apathetic, and unmotivated – by 2 pm!

I wanted to change that. I wanted to help us base our everyday lives on what is most sacred to us so that we have clear access to our inner radiance, so that we have a well within us of nourishing energy that informs our everyday decisions, and so that we lead the lives we want with purpose and our light shining brightly.

What I have discovered in being alongside people for so long now is that when we have the wisdom to pause and get clear on the vision WE have for the life WE want to lead, we have a stronger internal barometer for saying “no” to what doesn’t serve us and “yes” to what does.  We are quicker and more efficient with our “yeses” and our “no’s.”  We can get quiet in a moment of our attention being pulled outward, and we can turn inward to the voice that tells us what is sacred to US.

It all starts with having a clear and focused vision for the life we want to lead.

Having a soulful vision for your life is the anecdote to decision fatigue.

Then we can start planting the right kind of seeds to “live into” that soulful vision instead of getting distracted by the pings and dings of our world. We then can clearly say “no” to the seeds that don’t serve our vision and “yes” to the ones that do. We can call on the right resources that will help to bring our vision into fruition.

Such focused and devoted envisioning and living is empowering! Our confidence grows when we say “no” to what doesn’t serve us and “yes” to what does. We begin to trust ourselves and risk trusting the vision we have.

We trust. We plant. We water. We wait. We watch. And we look for signs that the seeds we planted are blossoming and bringing our vision into fruition.

We might need to adjust things. We might need to re-evaluate based on what arises. But it is OUR vision. OUR garden. OUR life. And there is a sense of true freedom and soul-confidence living this way that we wouldn’t give up for the certainty of someone else’s plan.

Dear Ones, I want you help you to have that clear and focused vision for the life you want to lead.  I offer personal and professional coaching for women are ready to lead with love. It is for soulful people who are ready to rise in their authentic power and truth. It is for game-changer, heart-centered women who are ready to get clear and focused on living the life they want to lead.

Get clear on the vision you want to lead for your life. Because the reality is we are not here forever. And it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty doing the inner work of discerning our truth – our vision. We want to base our everyday lives on what is most sacred to us, not on the ever changing ideas of “shoulds” and “ought to’s” of our culture.

So when there are the inevitable pings and dings of our day, our attention is anchored in the vision we have. We are clear and focused. We keep planting, keep watering, and keep tending to the vision within us with the hope and trust that one day, we will begin to see the blossoms we have imagined and longed for.