In order to manifest your vision — that which is nearest to your heart, including your biggest desires and secret longings, you must be prepared to venture out.
This is the energy of Emergence, the field of being seen and heard in the truth of who we are. We cannot become fully expressed in isolation. The sound of only one hand high-fiving is… well, you get it — nonexistent.
We manifest in connection to the people and the world around us — this is what it means to be fully self-actualized. This is what it means to belong. And so we step out, we reach for the world as we give ourselves fully to our creative expression.
There’s no way around it.
All the work that we’re doing on ourselves moves us toward expressing our gifts in the world. We can actually have a positive impact and be part of the change that we wish for.
How do we do this? By writing, speaking, and catalyzing your mission, vision, and values. This can help us categorize our why, what, and how.
Mission
Why do you do the things that you do? What is your raison d’être, your true purpose?
Vision
What is it that you do, what is your unique offering to the world? What do you have to offer the world?
Values
What big impact do you want to have as you give your gifts?
Writing Down Your Vision
We write in order to become more visible. But before you can emerge, you need to know what you have to say.
Write about your unique gifts, and write about your desires. Write about how you want to impact the world and the ways in which you’re uniquely qualified to do so.
Journaling
When you’re trying to write more, it’s sometimes easiest to do so in a journal, without letting your pen leave the page.
Before writing down your vision, start with your desires, then begin to write these desires as if they are already happening in your life. This will help you inhabit the energetic presence of someone living their dreams. Journal your mission, vision, and values.
The more you journal “as if” it were all happening in real-time, you will start to see your life naturally move toward that reality.
Streamline Your Message
Come up with 10 topics that you could speak about for 20 minutes.
These talks should always illustrate your expertise (why are you qualified to speak about this?), as well as your mission, your values, and your vision.
Then just repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, and repeat everything you do when you’re writing. Find 50 ways to talk about your passion!
Don’t worry about sounding unique or special — trust that when you are speaking from your deepest truth, the wisdom you share will always be yours.
If you’re planning on publishing blog posts or articles, your topics can all stem from these same messages. Writing dozens of blog posts on topics that inspire you is easier when you’re writing about the same topics from different angles.
This can also help streamline your message.
Create Storybooks/Metaphor Books
Throughout the day, write down stories and metaphors in your journal as they come through to you.
These bits of inspiration can help you express your work in more meaningful and emotional ways.
Speaking Your Vision into Life
Speaking can be just like journaling — especially outflow speaking. Use the same methods you use for journaling to start speaking. Don’t think too much about what you are going to say – just say it!
When you cultivate a habit of speaking out loud, you become more in service of your highest good.
Our voice carries powerful manifesting energy.
When we speak, the inner intimacy of journal writing becomes embodied in our vision and mission — and this embodied experience becomes felt by others as we deliver our wisdom.
So just allow yourself to speak and speak and speak and speak out loud. Allow this practice to help you fine-tune not only your message but your delivery and your embodiment.
And soon you will be ready to experiment with more confidence as you speak your honed wisdom to your inner circle, your colleagues, your audience, and the wide world at large.
Internal Speaking
What is your inner dialogue?
As you self-talk, start speaking out loud. Speak out your desires and visions and goals. But just to yourself at first.
Start orally telling stories, using metaphors, and describing your work.
Make sure that your internal dialogue matches what you’re saying, too. That your inner critic becomes more of an advocate and a champion when she speaks to you. Ensure she is supportive and self-compassionate, essentially saying: you got this.
All external speaking starts internally. Turn self-talk into an inspired, supportive champion for your ideas and visions. Let that voice inside say, “You’ve got this!” more often than it says, “What the heck are you doing?”
This will help you lay the groundwork for a powerful inner dialogue.
External Speaking
External speaking starts with describing your values in conversation.
As you describe your work (whether you’re speaking to a colleague or a friend over coffee) you’re practicing external speaking.
Bring your personal brand to life through conversation. Roleplay with people, and run your message by others.
Being able to speak your message out loud (and not just write it down) amplifies your vision. It also makes it more memorable for your support team.
And if there’s something really good, they’ll remember it and they’ll repeat it, and it will gain more impact. A lot of this is repetitive.
After practicing this external speaking for some time, you might start to feel comfortable widening your audience enough to start speaking from the stage.
Use the same stories and metaphors to bring your work to life.
Whatever your unique offering is, stretch it by speaking it to as many people as possible. Doing so helps you learn how to adapt your message to different situations.
Catalyzing Your Vision
All of this writing and speaking is an effort to pre-catalyze your vision.
But soon, you’ll be ready to develop a system for your visibility.
When you’re actually ready to Emerge, less is more. You’ve already done most of the actual work in the planning and prepping stages.
Catalyzation is simply your vehicle for letting people know who you are and how they see you. It’s getting your work out to your audience, making use of social media outlets, blogs, emails, podcasts, etc.
This needs to be consistent. You want to develop a relationship with getting your work out.
So whether you’re sending emails, offering services, posting articles or blogs, or publishing podcasts, do it consistently. Consistency is key! Doing so will help you become more concise with your message.
And when people see consistent and concise messaging over time, they remember it. This is a repeatable, scalable way to get your vision out into the world.
You don’t know who will be moved by what you say and often the biggest opportunities arise from the smallest conversations. Connect your vision to the visions and missions of others. There are many fabulous women out there who want to make a difference with their gifts. Use your big vision to help others reach theirs.
Remember, we are more inclined to complement each other than we are to compete. Keep the circle of connection flowing for maximum impact!
When you’re done speaking (or even before) let everyone know about your current and future offerings — including any writing you plan to do. This is how you become someone who’s ready to be seen and heard.
Is this hard? Absolutely. But we’ve all done things that are harder. With repetition, just continue to write, speak, and catalyze until you can do it with one eye closed.
