I was watching the movie ‘The Opus’ yesterday which was written and directed by Douglas Vermeeren.  For those who have watched ‘The Secret’ it may seem familiar in its discussion about the importance of the law of attraction but ‘The Opus’ goes beyond this simple principle to explain what we need to do to get ourselves to the next level.

The Opus

From the outset it is important to understand that our ‘Opus’ isn’t what we do but rather the legacy of who we will become.  Many of us focus on achievement and outcomes  to measure and represent who we are.  This ultimately leads to a sense of emptiness because as spiritual beings ‘things’ and ‘outcomes’ will never do us justice.  Our challenge then becomes to determine goals for what they will make of us to achieve them so that our success is measured by who we have become and the difference we have made rather than what we do or what we have.

The Opus Movie outlines a four step process that is fundamental to becoming who we are.  Vision, Plan, Action and Performance.

Vision

Our vision needs to be based on how we imagine we want our life to be.  In understand what our vision might be we need to look for something we love to do or something that gives us energy and feeds our soul.  Some people scare themselves by thinking that it has to be complicated and big –  It does not have to be big.  Dr John De martini says that “Your vitality in life is directly proportional to the vividness of your vision”.  When we have a clear vision of what we want to do, how we want to be and who we want to surround ourselves with, magnetic things occur and we draw into our lives amazing synchronicities, people, places, things and events that align us with our vision.

The critical factor  with the law of attraction that many do not understand is that it is not just about positive thinking, its about the feeling behind it, it’s the feeling that powers our vision.  Wanting something from our head can only go so far – powering something from our hearts creates the inspired action that brings us what we want.  In addition to this, our objectives need to be congruent with our highest values to create the momentum and a belief in ourselves that  is critical to get us to where we need to be.

If it is true that whatever we believe we become then there is incredible potential in all of us as long as we believe that the goals we set are possible for us.  When we find our passion, marry it with belief and allow the energy to well up in us we have the capacity to reach our true potential.

If we are struggling to be clear about what we want we need to be able to listen to what is inside of us.  We are all inclined to listen to other peoples successes and feel like we ‘should’ want the same or have the same interpretation of success but success can mean different things to each of us.  Becoming clear about our intention is critical.  If we can just stop and turn inward to find this intention we will be able to identify what we want.   The only way to get a clear picture of what we want in life is to silence the restless thoughts that are going through our minds and ask – what do I want? how do I feel? where do I want to go? and with whom?

What is your definition of success?

In ‘The Opus’ they use the example of John F Kennedy’s vision of sending men to the moon.  They identified that the definition of success was not simply to land men on the moon but to have all of those men returned safely to earth after their mission.  Once they set this intention they went about identifying what they needed to do to achieve this by working backward from the end goal.  We can do the same.  Identify our goal and then work backward from this – the problem that most of us have is that we don’t have this clear vision in the first place so we have to invest time in establishing this first.

Finding Clarity

It is the feeling of our own inspiration that needs to guide us to what we want and not what others want.  Becoming crystal clear about what we want and trusting that the how will show up later.  When people talk about achieving clarity they often talk about writing down goals but the most important factor is often left out – finding our motivation, our WHY.  We need to have clarity on why we  want it – the stronger and more important the why, the more power we will have to pursue that goal.

When we are in the process of achievement most people think that our greatest moment is when we are at the finish line or at the top of the mountain or when our bank account is full and if those are our goals then those moments when we get there may be exciting, there is no doubt about that. But none of these according to Douglas Vermeeren are our greatest moments, he says that our greatest moment can be measured by three things:

• The moment that will have the greatest affect on our future life;
• The moment that will carry the greatest future consequences;
• And the moment will have the farthest reaching impact on us and those around us.

Douglas says that our greatest moment becomes the moment that we decide – decision changes everything.

Plan

How do we get started? Just get started… We cant keep waiting until we know more, do more, become more,  A mediocre plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.  We need to start small and set ourselves up for success.   Dial it down, focus on what we can do not what we could do.

A decision of this significance isn’t something we do lightly it isn’t a wish or a whim and there won’t be any power in it until we can say it with clarity and then attach that commitment to some action.

As Stephen Covey suggests, we must always start with the end in mind but we don’t have to have every step in our heads.  Douglas Vemeeren says that top achievers do not have all answers and they also don’t wait for all the answers before they get started.  They don’t let questions like “what if?” paralyse them. They understand how to face the unknown and have the courage to face new things without having all the answers – they know that the answers will come and they adjust their course to accommodate each new step.  Most of the answers come in the action not in the calculate – he says that  top achievers aren’t perfectionists, they are improvisers.

We must always remember that there is no perfect time or perfect plan – we just need to keep moving forward.

My challenge to you (and myself) is to become clear about what you want – crystal clear and imagine it as if it were already happening then work backward from there.  On the next post I will cover the final two stages, action and Performance…

Talk to you soon

Helen

Helen Abbott