I have led Circles USA through a series of multiple-year Transformational Cycles. Although I continue to lead Circles USA for now, I have an even deeper emerging vision of what must be transformed in the world:

The world must experience a revolution that is as deep and powerful as the industrial revolution was in shaping our collective behavior. At the center of this revolution will be people who embrace high ideals of what it is to be human: loving, caring, wise, respectful, peaceful, and happy. With these qualities, people can move mountains.

Through Circles USA, I will continue to support our strategies to bring Circles to 10% of all US Counties (300), and equip them to support a reduction of poverty by at least 10% over a decade. However, I am also going to support transformational leaders within our Circles work and on other complementary agendas using the Your Heart is Calling Program. The emerging vision requires aligning myself with a team of allies who understand marketing, distribution, business plans, workshops, books, etc. This new calling requires me to update my conversation with current allies, and cultivate new allies who will support me in fulfilling my new vision.

As we aspire to be the change we want to see happen in the world, we must identify and release internal resistance and procrastination patterns that will inevitably arise to protect the status quo. This may require letting go of our denial about the current conditions in the world and having enough courage to change what we can within our own lives to affect lasting change in the world around us. To effect meaningful changes on a larger stage, we must give ourselves an unusual amount of support.

Whatever we want to change in the world will require an equal change within ourselves. It is natural that our inner resistance to change will come to the surface and generate a certain amount of fear, frustration, helplessness, and a sense of ennui. Below is a common delay pattern that most of us must confront one way or the other.

The pattern will keep looping until we decide to interrupt it and choose another behavior. Rather than perpetually running this pattern through our minds and emotions, we can turn towards allies and begin talking about our vision with as much passion as possible. The more passion and enthusiasm we generate, the more energy we have available to pursue our vision. Taking action is what signals to ourselves, others, and life itself that we are serious about moving forward.

From the book: Your Heart Is Calling ~ By Scott C. Miller

To learn more about Scott Miller, please see his website here.

In order to carry a positive action, we must develop here a positive vision.

-Dalai Lama

Perhaps you have never taken the time to write down or record on video exactly how you want to live your life. It can be an immensely powerful and satisfying process. Your vision is your through-line to the future you want. When you articulate your vision in detail you will have an easier time recognizing and seizing opportunities to manifest it.

You might think of it [sustainability] as extending the Golden Rule through time, so that you do unto future generations…as you would have them do unto you.

-Robert Gilman

Vision is informed by our soul’s primary purpose in being here. Each of us can tap into a deeper understanding about what we are to do next in life. When we are acting on our inner vision, it is normal to feel both anxious and excited at the same time; our awareness quickened by possibility. As we continue to affirm our vision and take steps towards it, we will feel more at ease, clearer about our purpose, and more confident in our ability to handle challenges. Enthusiasm and peace of mind are markers that assure us we are on the right path to fulfilling our unique calling.

Whether we have articulated it or not, each of us has a personal vision for the world we want. If we take the time to articulate it, we can then choose to act on it and enjoy the benefits of living a purposeful life. Once we are able to share our vision in both a detailed one-hour presentation as well as in a two-three-minute elevator speech, we can then align ourselves with others who share our vision and are willing to join us in bringing it to fruition. Achieving the vision requires learning whatever is necessary to embed the change into the culture.

From the book: Your Heart Is Calling ~ By Scott C. Miller

To learn more about Scott Miller, please see his website here.

The future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens.

-Rainer Maria Rilke

Moving through the Transformational Cycle is a natural process that each of us is always engaged in, whether we see it or not. Consciously and mindfully engaging in the cycle yields better and more profound results. We can use the metaphor of a garden and the four seasons to illustrate how the cycle operates.

Winter: A vision emerges from within us while in the resting stage of winter. We articulate it during this quieter season.

Spring: We look for fertile ground to plant the seeds of our vision with others. We align our lives to our new vision; preparing ourselves to tend to our transformational garden.

Summer: We are now deeply involved with the nurturing of our garden; weeding out what we don’t want and watering what we do. We are learning from fellow gardeners and from our own trials and errors.

Autumn: We persist and now harvest the fruits of our labor. We have embedded our vision into reality and the world has been changed.

From the book: Your Heart Is Calling ~ By Scott C. Miller

To learn more about Scott Miller, please see his website here.

What is true for each of us that no matter how great your life is and how large your contribution, there is even more potential awaiting us. By claiming the next chapter of your life as the one in which you listen even more attentively to your heart’s desire and act on it, you can have a bigger impact on the world. If you feel zest and joy as you anticipate undertaking your new plans, you know that you are on the right track. The world is about to become a better place because you are listening to and acting on what your heart is telling you to do.

This book provides a structure to help you identify a bold vision and articulate the steps you need to take to bring it to reality. Developing your Heart is Calling Plan will help you identify and clarify what you need to do in each of the four seasons of the change process:

Once you have completed your Heart is Calling Plan, you will have a powerful summary of your vision. You will begin to align the seeds of your vision with those of others as you seek out the allies and partners who will support your journey. You will align your time, environment, and schedule with the people and organizations that can most help you bring your vision into reality. You may choose to develop your own organization and help others to align their personal energies to it to achieve the vision. You will also develop a written learning agenda that you must tend to so that you and others can learn whatever is necessary to embed your transformation so that the world can harvest the results.

Whatever we see to change in the world, we can be certain that there is something in our own lives that our heart wants us to explore, assess, and change. For example, through my early job experience in serving people who were struggling in poverty, I was struck by how often people seemed to be alone with their problems. I decided to set up support groups to help people move out of poverty as a response to the isolation I was seeing in them. I considered my own life and asked the question, “Where do I feel poverty and need more support?” I found parts of my life in which I felt isolated, alone, and unable to make the changes I wanted to make.

Before I could contribute to any lasting change in the world, I had to commit to changing my own life. In other words, I had to become the change I wanted to see happen. Circles USA was the result of an intense soul-searching process that I had begun in the mid-90s. Circles® became the simple process of surrounding one’s self with people who will be your allies as you make an important change in your life, like moving out of poverty. I have, however, put the Circles methodology to use in numerous areas of my own life for the past twenty years.

From the book: Your Heart Is Calling ~ By Scott C. Miller

To learn more about Scott Miller, please see his website here.

If you watch the “news,” it is easy to assume that humanity is devolving rather than moving forward in its evolution. To create a world that works for everyone, we need to plug our precious personal energy into solutions rather than the presentation of problems that passes as news in our mainstream culture. This requires seeking out information about what solutions are working, or could work, and determine how we can make our contribution. Ultimately if we are living a vibrant life, we generate positive energy to those around us.

According to the brilliant, late statistics guru Hans Rosling, the world works for more people now than it ever has before, based on global health and economic data. If you regularly watch the news, you may find this hard to believe given that the media’s strategy is to focus on “breaking news” that constantly alarms us so we will keep tuning into their story line. Rosling’s Ted Talk entitled “The best stats you’ve ever seen” is both inspiring and informative. It is important to acknowledge the progress that we humans are making and to affirm that we can grow and develop.

We can be certain that new economic and social systems are emerging as more people raise their consciousness and exercise their leadership in the world around them. Although it does not yet get mainstream media attention, there is massive ground-up and top-down leadership being brought to organizations, neighborhoods, communities, and nations throughout the globe by those who have clarity about what is at stake. These leaders have a vision for change, a plan to achieve it and enough support from others to bring their projects to fruition. More of us are looking for ways to make a significant contribution to creating a world that works for everyone.

Your Heart is Calling is one of many new tools being offered to help us increase our personal impact on the world.

From the book: Your Heart Is Calling ~ By Scott C. Miller

To learn more about Scott Miller, please see his website here.