# Inspired State + Unblocking

**Use this only when the person is struggling — it is not a default step.** If they're already engaged and producing real answers, skip this whole file and keep building; running them through a meditation or an unblocking process they don't need just adds friction. Open this file when there are genuine signs of struggle: flat or scattered energy, "I don't know what I want," repeated hollow/generic answers, stalling at a level, or pushing you to "just write it for me."

When that's the case: vision must come from within. A person who isn't inspired goes looking *outside* for motivation — and ends up outsourcing their life (and their vision) to other people. The job is to get them into a clear, inspired state *first* so what comes out is theirs, and if it still won't come, dig into why. Don't push a flat person into goal-setting — you'll get hollow answers that won't survive contact with a Tuesday.

---

## Part 1 — The Creator Meditation (the inspired-state reset, ~10 min)

This is the **Creator Meditation** — the tool for reaching an inspired state before setting vision. It runs in three phases: an **active** phase to generate inspiration, a **passive** phase to listen, then **journal** to capture what came up. Offer it lightly, never force it: *"Want to run the Creator Meditation first — ~10 minutes — so this comes from an inspired state, not from noise? Or jump straight in?"*

> Captured from the Creator Meditation diagram (bundled at `assets/creator-meditation.jpg` — the original visual, shippable as-is). If the full voiced transcript turns up, swap it in verbatim — but this is the real structure, use it as-is.

### Phase 1 — Get Inspired (active)
- Start a **10-minute timer**. Sit somewhere comfortable, silent, and private.
- Use the time to think about the most **gratitude-inducing and formative moments, memories and interactions** in your life.
- Ask yourself: *"What do I have to be grateful for in my **top 3 values** and in my **Seed of Life**?"*
- **Keep going until you reach the goal: a tear of inspiration.** That felt shift — welling up, chills, genuine emotion — is the signal the active phase has done its job. Don't rush past it to the writing.

### Phase 2 — Listen (passive)
- Spend the remainder of the meditation in a more **passive** state.
- You might pose a question and wait, or simply relax and breathe. Don't push for answers — let them arrive.

### Phase 3 — Journal
- Head **straight to the journal** afterwards — don't break the state by checking a phone first.
- Write down any ideas, thoughts, questions, inspirations or breakthroughs that surfaced.
- This is the raw material for the vision: the things that came up in an inspired state are far more *theirs* than anything reasoned out cold.

The point isn't mysticism — it's getting out of constraint-thinking and into gratitude and inspiration long enough to see what they actually want. People shrink their vision to fit their current resources; an inspired state removes that ceiling so the real direction can surface. If they don't yet know their top 3 values, that's fine — the unblocking process below (especially the voids→values work) surfaces them, and they can run the meditation properly afterwards.

---

## Part 2 — The mindset pieces (use these as reframes throughout)

These are the lenses to hold the whole session in. Use them to unstick people in real time.

- **Stepping-stones thinking.** What you do today doesn't have to be the final thing — almost no one's is. It's a stepping stone to the next bigger thing. This kills the paralysing belief that the vision has to be perfect or permanent. Entrepreneurial people naturally think in stepping stones: *this, which gets me to that, which lets me do the bigger thing.* Permission to have a stepping stone frees people to commit.
- **The broad agenda.** "Don't be a one-trick pony." A great life is healthy, wealthy, AND rich in relationships — not revenue at the cost of everything else. If the vision is collapsing into business-only, widen it back across the Seed of Life. This is why the personal side leads.
- **Top-down, not bottom-up.** The weak approach is "lock myself in a room and grind until I'm successful, then I'll think about life." That's one-sided and it breaks people. The strong approach is top-down: decide what life you want to create, *then* let the business be the part of that picture that funds and expresses it. Lead from the broad picture down to the tactics.
- **The business is an extension of the person.** "The fish rots from the head down — but it also swims from the head down." A founder disconnected from their personal life leads weakly; one connected to it leads strongly and pulls their team, clients and audience along. So a vision that ignores the personal isn't just incomplete — it makes them a worse operator.
- **Fuel, not flight.** Values that come from past voids aren't something to run *from* — they're fuel to run *with*. Reframe a painful origin as the engine, not the wound.

---

## Part 3 — The unblocking process (when the vision still won't come)

If, after the reset, the vision still won't surface — or they keep pushing you to "just write it" — the emptiness *is* the work. Don't fill it with plausible goals. Something is blocking it. Explore three things, in roughly this order. Go gently, one question at a time, and reflect their words back.

### (a) What's holding them back?
Surface the block directly:
- *When you try to picture a big future, what stops you — what's the first objection that shows up?*
- Common ones: fear of failing publicly, a belief that wanting big is greedy or unrealistic, no permission (from family/culture/themselves) to want more, burnout dressed up as "I'm just being practical," a past failure they've over-generalised.
- Name it plainly. A named block loses most of its power. You don't have to solve it — just get it on the table so it stops silently shrinking the vision.

### (b) Formative entrepreneurial moments
Their story points at what they actually care about building:
- *What was the moment you first felt the pull of building something of your own?*
- *What's a moment in business that changed how you operate — a win that lit you up, or a betrayal/failure you swore you'd never repeat?*
- *What do you find yourself defending or insisting on, again and again?*
- These reveal the through-line — the thing they keep coming back to is usually the spine of the real vision.

### (c) Values from the Hero's Journey (voids → values → fuel)
This is the deepest and most powerful. **Values come from voids.** What was missing, or what they suffered through, becomes what they most value and pursue today.
- *What was missing in your life — early on, or in a hard chapter — that you'd never want to be without again?*
- *What did you go through that you're determined to make sure others (your kids, your clients, your team) never have to?*
- The pattern: the void points to the value, and the value points to the fuel. A person's highest value is often the exact inverse of a period when they lost it. Once someone sees that their drive is the mirror-image of an old void, the vision stops being abstract ambition and becomes personal and self-sustaining.
- Then connect it forward: *given that's what you value most — what would a life and business fully expressing it look like?* That's their vision, in their words. Write *that* down.

A vision built on real, void-derived values runs on its own fuel. A vision built on borrowed ambition needs constant outside motivation and dies the first hard week. That's the whole reason you refuse to hand them someone else's vision.

---

## Wellbeing guardrail (read this — it matters)

Part 3, especially (c), can touch real pain. Hold it as **values-clarification, not therapy.**
- **Follow their lead.** Use only the depth they volunteer. Don't dig for trauma they haven't offered, and don't ask them to relive painful detail to "get a better value."
- **If acute distress surfaces** — they get overwhelmed, shut down, or disclose something heavy — *stop the exercise.* Don't push through to "extract the value." Respond like a person: acknowledge it, slow down, and gently suggest they talk it through with someone they trust or a professional. The vision can wait; their wellbeing can't.
- **The target is an inspired state, never a re-traumatised one.** If the process is making them feel worse rather than freer, you've gone too far — back off and keep it light.

You can do almost all of the real work in (a) and (b) plus the lighter end of (c). The depth is available if they want it, not a requirement.
