Step 3 Develop a Vision
If you’ve found this article, but have not yet read the introduction 10 Steps to Success, I highly encourage you to do so before continuing. This is part of a series of articles that read in order will give you valuable insight as to how to become successful with anything you envision.
A Vision for my Life?
Many people have developed a vision for their business, they set goals for a new year, or maybe they imagine what it would be like to have all their desires in the future. These all have similarities to a life vision statement. This article is not written as a detailed instruction manual on how to write a vision, rather it explains why developing a vision for your life is so incredibly important. It also provides some practical considerations for writing your vision.
One may ask - what exactly is a vision? A vision is a referenceable document that describes our dreams and desires and provides clarity for the actions we take in the future. It focuses our minds on those aspects of life that are truly important and guides us to move in that direction by seeing and creating opportunities to make it so. Having a vision is like having a map when you are driving in an unknown area. If you do not have a map (or vision), you might get to the place you wanted, but there is a huge chance that you will either miss the target completely, or take a very long amount of time to get there. If you don’t have any vision at all (ie: you are driving without a destination), you’d never know if you reached your desires as you have no baseline to compare to.
You can see the importance of having the clarity of a vision in your life. I’ve coached far too many people who wonder why everything they want has not happened, but when asked what they want - they don’t know! This is a perfect recipe for getting whatever the the world decides to hand down to you.
Now, I am not so bold to say that rolling with life is a bad way to do things. Maybe some people are thrilled with allowing life to evolve without any real direction. I am not one to judge. I’ve just seen in my experience that there are many people that struggle with achieving what they would like to (in one or more aspects of life), and the truth is that their own personal uncertainty is the foundation for their lack of movement and achievement. They are driving with no destination in mind!
Nuts and Bolts - Writing the Vision
Okay, having a vision sounds like a good idea, how do I do it? Let me provide a preamble by saying that there is no correct or incorrect way to write a vision. The vision comes from you. The format that is most empowering for you is the correct way to write a vision. The only requirement is that it must be written down.
That being said, many people are uncertain as to how to start. My recommendation would be to read Developing the Vision as a starting point. Many of my personal coaching clients have followed these steps word for word and it has led to fantastic results. You are welcome to follow this process as written, or to make modifications if you find that you prefer bullet lists, writing on your computer, connecting it to artwork, etc. My recommendation is that you do not lose the purpose of the vision in the format you choose. The purpose is to be clear of your desires and to bring these into the physical world. The easiest way that I know of to do this is to write it on paper and make it visible.
After the vision is written, it MUST be read/viewed frequently. If you have time to do this daily, incredible things will start happening. Once its engrained in your being, you may read it once/week or once/month - but always refer back to it as it will create opportunities while focusing our minds on a desired outcome. This step is essential - we want the vision to be on our mind continually, which enables us to explore possibilities as they arise in real time!
Goals versus the Vision
When I explain the vision writing process to people in person - they get excited. They start imagining a vision of everything they wanted in life. I challenge them to dream big and at some point everyone has the thought - this is not possible! Whether its related to a relationship, to a financial situation, to being healthy, this thought will pass. Thats OK - we all have doubts. The vision is not a place for doubts. Its not a goal. Its not defining actions that we need to take. Its simply expressing what we want and when we want it! That’s all. So don’t over think it. It is part dream, part reality, and it lays out the foundation from which we can craft a plan to work towards.
I suggest attaching a time frame to a vision. Again, you can create the vision to your own liking, but if you are willing to say to yourself that I am going to make this a reality some day - then pick that day! If your mind starts telling you again that this could never be so, remember that this is just what you want things to look like - nothing more. It is here to help stay focused. If my reality in 1 year does not look like what I wrote, that is OK. Perhaps something better came along, perhaps I was too conservative, perhaps 1/2 of the things I wrote about came true, perhaps an unexpected event came up that made sense to focus my attention on. It is OK. Write it anyway. If you need to pick a date longer down the road such that you are comfortable with writing in that time frame then make it in 5 years, 10 years, a 20 year retirement vision - the choice is yours.
This process should be fun. People love doing this, and usually it only takes a couple hours because we have all these ideas stored up inside of us just waiting to be written down on paper.
I don’t know what I want!
I love this. Its an absolutely beautiful response. And if you are feeling this way when confronted with writing a vision I will challenge you because you do know what you want, so either- 1) you are just focusing on the wrong items, 2) you are talking yourself out of your vision because your brain is telling you that it could never happen, or 3) you are afraid of changing your current life. Lets look at each of these:
Focusing on the wrong items: Lets explain this with an example. Many people are uncertain of things - like ‘I do not know what kind of job I want’. This may be the point where someone becomes ’stuck’ looking for a job. You may not know exactly what job you want - that could be a valid statement, however I can still have a vision. I either want to work part time or full time. I want to work weekends, Monday-Friday. I want flexibility to pick up my children, I want to make x amount of money. Look at all you do know. Developing this vision draws from that of which you are certain - its what is in your heart. When writing the vision focus on what you want, not the uncertainties that may exist. Its OK if the vision statement does not explain everything - our lives are not scripted.
Talking yourself out of it: Some people claim that they do not know what they want - but really what is happening is that they don’t believe what they want can be real and they shoo away the idea. They simply can not imagine a life in which they have what they want and quickly they talk themselves out of their dreams. This is an unfortunate place to be in. It means that our incredible ability to imagine, dream, and believe in miracles has been washed out over the years as we’ve evolved from children to adults. Our curiosity has been lost, and its become convenient to say ‘forget it’ rather than to explore the possibilities. If you find yourself in this boat, the great news is that getting this imagination back is as simple as making a choice. Choose to believe in yourself and it all returns to you. Writing the vision is a big step for everyone - particularly to those that have difficulty listening to what their dreams are - because writing them on paper means choosing to believe in the possibility. This simple act can turn things around.
Afraid of Change: Writing down your vision is powerful. Its acknowledging what we want, which may be drastically different from what we have. It may represent change, it may be uncomfortable, you may feel butterflies in your stomach thinking about getting out of your current situation. Sometimes change is downright scary and we prefer to be in a lousy situation that we can predict, rather than an incredible one which we have not experienced before! Amazing how our minds work! Ask yourself are you really unclear of what you want, or is it just that you are afraid to make changes in your life. What would it be like to give up those fears?
The Most Important Step
While each of the 10 Steps to Success is important, I find the vision to be the most important. Without vision, without direction, without consciously knowing and acknowledging what you want, the rest of the steps are essentially without purpose. While a vision can change as our priorities and life changes (and it should, if we are totally inflexible we would never allow for bigger and better outcomes!), it is the guiding force that focuses our actions. While we’ve all got dreams in our head, the act of writing it down brings it to our consciousness. Once in our consciousness, we enable our brains (an incredibly powerful solution generating machine) to see, create, and fabricate ways to make this happen.
Be Well
Related Articles: 10 Steps to Success, 10 Steps to Success - Step 1 Welcome Success, 10 Steps to Success - Step 2 Provide Value to the World, Developing the VisionWritten by Doug Nau, The Wellness Coach, i-grow.net
