Hello Reader,

When you are a person with a lot of skills, responsibilities, relationships and obligations, your brain can get overloaded pretty easily, and when that happens, the question that gets pushed furthest into the background is often the one that matters most: What do I really want?

Instead, we find ourselves asking what we are supposed to do next, whether we are making the right decision, or waiting for some unmistakable sign that will tell us which direction to take. I understand that frustration because I have felt it myself, and I think many of us have become remarkably good at covering it up. We keep showing up, taking care of things, making things happen and appearing perfectly capable while somewhere underneath all of that is a growing sense that we want something we cannot quite name.

Maybe part of the reason is that we have already experienced so much. You have raised great kids, traveled, seen Beyoncé, Prince or Usher, sat in a Broadway theater, had experiences you once dreamed about and, perhaps, even had the opportunity to tell someone whose work mattered to you exactly what they meant to you. You have built a life with plenty of evidence that you are capable of making things happen, yet you can still find yourself wondering what the next part is supposed to look like.

This is where I think our fascination with manifestation becomes particularly interesting. I believe in manifestation, but I also believe there is something practical and powerful about creating a vision for your life because a vision gives all of those thoughts, desires and possibilities somewhere to go. Without one, it is remarkably easy to remain in contemplation, constantly considering what might be possible without ever establishing a direction.

A vision does not guarantee that everything will unfold exactly as imagined, but it can create the focus and intention that help you make decisions differently. It gives you something against which to measure opportunities, choices and even the things you are currently tolerating, and that can be the difference between simply hoping that your life changes and participating in the process of changing it.

I would never suggest that everyone needs to re-envisions their life. Some people are genuinely happy with what they have built, and there is nothing wrong with that. This conversation is for the woman who has a persistent feeling that something is waiting for her attention, but cannot quite figure out whether she needs a change, a new direction or simply permission to want something different.

I remember coming home from work, sitting on the couch and wondering, Is this it? At the time, I did not have a sophisticated answer to that question. I simply knew that the life I was living could not be the entire story.

We were raised with a pretty clear understanding of what adulthood was supposed to look like, and society made plenty of promises about what would happen if we followed the path, worked hard and did what was expected of us. Some of those promises came true, some did not, and some were never really ours in the first place.

What interests me now is that we have the perspective, the experience and, in many cases, the freedom to question the path itself.

That is what Envision is really about.

It begins with a question I have learned to take seriously: What do I really want?

Not because there is one perfect answer waiting to be discovered, but because asking the question honestly can change the way you see the life you are already living and the possibilities available to you.

And for the woman who has been feeling pulled in ten different directions and unable to quite land anywhere, that conversation may be worth having.

With kindness,

Monica