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Understanding and harnessing our desires is crucial for both personal and professional growth. During a recent Leadership Bootcamp, Jens Heitland offered a compelling session on "Igniting Desire - Steps to Your Personal Vision," providing invaluable insights into how we can identify and achieve our deepest desires.

Desire as a Driving Force

Desire is akin to a burning fire that drives us toward our goals. Yet, many of us struggle to articulate what we truly desire. Through his extensive experience in coaching, particularly within large corporate settings, Jens Heitland has observed that most people find it challenging to pinpoint their desires. This session aims to tackle this issue head-on, encouraging individuals to explore their true aspirations early on.

The Staircase Canvas: A Visual Tool for Clarity

Heitland introduces the staircase canvas, a powerful visual tool designed to help individuals navigate their journey toward their desires. The concept is simple yet profound:

• Positive Behaviors: These are the actions and habits that propel us up the staircase toward our goals. For example, if your desire is to achieve independence by the age of 40, positive behaviors might include setting early morning routines, maintaining a daily diary, and establishing a network of meaningful connections.

• Negative Behaviors: Conversely, these are the habits that pull us down the staircase, hindering our progress. Examples include staying in bed too late, excessive screen time, and trying to please others at the expense of our own goals.

Real-Life Applications and Examples

Heitland emphasizes the importance of personalizing this process. Each individual must identify their unique desires and the corresponding behaviors that will aid or obstruct their path. For instance, someone desiring financial independence might focus on building a business and prioritizing tasks that contribute directly to this goal.

Daily Habits and Long-Term Success

One of the key takeaways from the session is the significance of daily habits. Heitland shares his personal routine of writing down his goals every morning and identifying daily actions that align with these objectives. This practice not only keeps him focused but also filters out distractions that do not contribute to his long-term vision.

Overcoming Limiting Factors

Identifying and overcoming limiting behaviors is crucial. Whether it’s the temptation to indulge in leisure activities that don’t add value or the pressure to meet others' expectations, recognizing these obstacles is the first step in overcoming them. Heitland encourages a deep introspection to uncover these limiting factors and replace them with constructive actions.

Watch the Video of the Live Leadership Bootcamp here

"Igniting Desire - Steps to Your Personal Vision" is more than just a session; it is a roadmap to achieving what you truly want in life. By understanding and applying the staircase canvas, individuals can take control of their journey, cultivate positive habits, and eliminate barriers to success. Whether your desire is personal freedom, financial security, or impactful contribution, the insights shared by Jens Heitland provide a solid foundation for making your vision a reality.

Transcript of the video:

Desire is a burning fire. What are you desiring in your life? And the fun thing is because  I've used this canvas in coaching a lot of people, mostly of course, due to my history in large corporate, where people have been responsible for a lot of people.

And when you ask them what is their desire and what are they after,  most of us don't have an answer to this.  So it's very difficult for a lot of people to get into this. And that's why I want to have it early on for you, that you start thinking about this. And this canvas works like this. 

 So it's a staircase.

There are things which help you getting up that staircase, which help you towards the desire you have, which is on the upper left corner. And then there are things which drag you down the staircase, which are the negative behaviors. And I call that behaviors because it's often easier for you to understand.

Going into that. So let's let me give you an example.  So if we talk about desire and if we ju just take a couple of things. I want to be independent when I'm 40.  If we just take this, I want, 

some of you are 25 years old and independent in this case could mean I want to cover my cost. I don't want to work for someone else. I want to be free. I want to have a family. I want to have X amount of money at a certain time. So there are different desires which you can put into that box because the group of desires will help you to guide you to get there.

And if you have understood what your desire is, and sometimes that's requires you need to go deeper into yourself,  questioning yourself, what are my true desires? Is it getting a car? Is it getting a million? Is it doing this? Is it doing that?  You need to find this out for yourself. For me if we take my example, it's really about I want to be independent.

I want to create impact in this world. So that's a bit my desire, but this is just to get you a little bit into this. And then of course they're  positive behaviors that help you to reach this. So if you want to be independent and age 40, And one of the parts is you want to run your own business.

So how do you build behaviors and habits that help you? And that can be, I get up  at 6:00 AM  and  write  my  diary,  this can be easy, things like this and that sometimes so sounds weird, but for example, in Barcelona I gave the example that I do this since a couple of years.

I've write down every day very early in the morning, what are my key goals in my life and how do I contribute today to get towards my key goals? We will go later into that exercise as well. So if I just know I do this every day, I know what my focus is. Which also means that everything else that is  not helping me to reach that is. 

Between me and my desire.  So another thing might be  reach out  to 10 people 

per day.  And that can be how do I stay connected to good friends from childhood? How do I stay connected to family members? How do I get the sales engine rolling? Depending on what your desire is, there are things that help you to get closer and there are things that don't.  So this gives you a little bit an example of that.

And if we just move that down here,  let's make it right.  And that can be

stay in bed until nine.  And that's just the example to getting up at six. Of course, there are people who love to stay long in bed I'm just an early person that doesn't work for me, but there are people who are just saying, no, I, I'm not interested. I'm just watching Netflix every day, two hours.

And this two hours maybe you could use in reading a book, reading an article, connect to a good friend, helping someone helping yourself getting fit. Whatever the things are they're different things that help different people, depending on what your desire is.  I already said try to stay fit. Let's do another one. Try, 

try to please people, especially for young people, but as well for people that are already a little more senior. I have had people who are 50 plus who try to please their parents still,  and of course, Parents and family members sometimes have a completely different desire and completely different perspective in life.

So that's then a limiting factor for you and a limiting behavior if you always try to please them. So you need to find out what are your positive things, what are your negative things, and how do you keep on track stepping up the staircase towards your desire?