At the end of each Immersion class, we take a moment to clarify how we want to be, or what we want to do in the week ahead. In the years that I lived in Scotland I spent a great deal of time hiking up mountains with my partner. We’d fill a backpack with food, water, maps (and crampons if it was winter), and then set off with a destination in mind. Our intention would be, let’s say, to get to the top of Ben Lomond, or to climb the Cobbler. Halfway up, we might realise that our timing hadn’t been quite right, so we’d have to cut around the back. Or the snow had come early, so we’d have to stay on the ridge. At that point we might amend our goal.

 

Intention is a plan, but it adapts to circumstances, it allows for adjustment. And it builds on your experience.

 

Let’s begin with noticing what you’ve already done. Take some time today to write down everything you’ve achieved during the Immersion course. Write the longest, most detailed list you can, noticing everything you have achieved. Built a garden, picked up the guitar, wrote a limerick, wrote the verse of a song, wrote 20 handwritten pages, wrote every day, clarified your values, wrote a letter from the future, cleared the desk…. Notice even the smallest achievement, and put everything down.

 

 Now, to the future. Consider your Letter from the Future you wrote earlier. Come closer. Set a date, six months in the future. Think about who you want to be on that date.

 

What do you want more of? What do you want to be doing at that time? What will you have already done? Consider who you want to be, what you will be doing, and what you will have.

 

For instance, you might write:
 I am connected to my writing and my intuition, I listen to my instincts and I write each day, I have written three short stories and sent one out to journals.

 

Put this in your calendar or diary, on that date, six months from now.

 

What then will you need to be doing three months from now, to bring this to fruition? Mark this date in your diary, and again write down what you will have achieved by that date.

 

What are your habit and actions?
What have you already done?

 

So, in order to be that person, with those habits and those outcomes on that date, what do you need to do this week?

 

Write down one action that you can take in this coming week, after Immersion: Deep, to bring you closer to your three-month goal.

 

Your contract with your own creative self is to continue towards your intention, even if you adapt along the way. And no doubt you will adapt. Perhaps you’ll take the shorter back route, or else take the longer route along the ridgetop. It’s goal-setting with kindness and allowing for new information.

 

Commit to yourself. Take that one action this week and next. Pack your lunch and your map and don’t forget your hat.

Your prompt for today:

Some days, although we cannot pray…. (after Carol Ann Duffy)