Creating a vision isn’t just for large corporations.
Regardless of what you might think, sitting down and identifying your vision is some of the most valuable time that you can spend in deep thought.
Why You Need a Vision
Setting a vision, or multiple visions, is how you are able to pursue life with a sense of purpose.
Think of the age-old question: “What is the meaning of life?”
The answer to this question is based on the answer you give it. When you look back at your time spent in life, what do you want to be remembered for? What do you want to have accomplished in that time? What purpose will you have carried out?
If you’re a leader, having a vision is essential to making decisions for the health of your team and company.
Related: 7 Exercises to Skyrocket Your Confidence At Work
If you are a young adult, budding professional, or looking to make a major life pivot, setting a vision helps you know what direction to go. Even if life lends itself to unexpected moments, a vision is what keeps you on track.
A vision allows you to act and make decisions on a daily basis that are in direct alignment with your future visions.
Consider the momentum behind the remaining 34,773 decisions made. Think of how much power the sum of these decisions would have in working in favor of you achieving the dreams you have for your future.
On the other hand, if you don’t have a set vision – how do you know that these daily decisions are in line with where you want to be in life?
How do you know if you’re making decisions that are steering you off course?
How do you know you’re aligned and achieving what you want?
You don’t.
How to Create a Life Vision
If you’re worried about losing the power of precious daily decisions, we’ve got your back. We have a few quick and simple steps to set an aligned vision for your life and future.
Then, if you’re still seeking direction and accountability in charting your goals and next steps, we have the straightforward, A-Z process for you here.
Understand the concept of a vision.
A vision is a big picture of what you want to do in life. It’s your north star and life “roadmap” through which you funnel all your short and long-term goal planning to achieve.
Your vision is what you picture achieving later in your life.
Similar to what we mentioned at the start of this article if you should live to X number of years in your life, what do you want to have achieved in that time?
Visions are not to be confused with long-term goals, which are part of the system you need to develop that helps you get to the point of achieving your visions.
So, what are visions?
Identify what success would look like in your life.
Your vision is what you picture success to be.
No two people are the same. As such, everyone will have a different understanding of what success means to them.
Your vision is what you want.
For example, success might mean that you have the means to take care of your loved ones and share thoughtful gifts and experiences with them.
For others, success might look like having a certain number in their bank account, being able to live in a certain type of house in a certain location or having a large family.
Still, others might want to lose X pounds of weight, become healthier or travel to X number of countries in the world.
Your vision includes all aspects of your life that you want to be present in your vision of success:
- Health & Fitness
- Finances
- Family & Social Relationships
- Romantic Relationships
- Growth & Learning
- Religion & Spirituality
- Fun/Hobbies
- Community Outreach
- School
- Work & Career
Consider what matters to you and what you want.
Your vision is influenced by the life you lead, your experiences in life, and those that you surround yourself with.
With the amount of information we receive in our lives, it’s sometimes hard to pick apart what we want from what we see, or what others see for us.
Your vision is based on your values in life. Dig deep and ask yourself: “What is important to me?”
We encourage jumping into this comprehensive list of 200 values to find what values resonate with you.
When you align your identified vision with your values, you add kindling to the fire.
You have greater passion and drive to actually pursue the vision(s) you set for yourself. As a result, you’ll have a greater sense of reward and accomplishment when you do achieve your vision.
Set up your environment to dream big.
As we mentioned, what you want and envision for success is dictated by several factors in life.
Very notably, your idea of success is impacted by the people you surround yourself with.
If you surround yourself with those who dream big, you will be set up to create bold and powerful visions for the life you want.
If you don’t have people in your social circles with the same visions, give yourself permission to be creative with your vision setting.
While it feels safe to go with the flow, think outside the realm of your day-to-day. Consider what actually scares you to write on paper or say out loud. These are the big visions to pay attention to for yourself.
Give yourself the solo time, safe space, and permission to envision your life fearlessly.
Determine how your want to write your visions.
Whether you type or write, determine how you want to record and save your visions.
In the Project OTY Build YOUR Roadmap platform, we guide you from start to finish in writing clear and achievable vision statements that are intuitively saved to a personalized Roadmap.
In general, you should aim to write or type out what you want, no holds barred. Make a list of what you want your future and life to look like.
This could look like creating a mindmap within the various areas of your life (health, finances, etc.). It could be words or phrases for what you imagine your life to include in terms of experiences, roles, people, places, and items.
Regardless of your approach, get your visions set. Write down what first comes to mind.
Once you’ve put them down on paper, whiteboard, or Word Document, step away. Resist the urge to edit at the moment, and come back to edit your visions later.
Build your visions brick by brick.
Your visions are how you want your life to look.
Building out what you want your life to look like and planning to achieve it is not an overnight event.
With your written list of visions – take time to edit and reflect on what you want and why you want it.
Return to it frequently to add additional visions.
From there, start to think backward to reverse engineer your visions. In other words, think about how you plan to reach those visions and make them a reality.
Who do you need to talk to?
What do you need to work on?
What do you need to learn?
What opportunities do you need to align yourself with?
How do you need to develop yourself to be in a ready spot to meet your future success?
These are the questions that we prompt Project OTY Learners to answer – not only to help them set their visions in stone but to feel confident in achieving them.
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Future Visualization: What It Is and How It Helps You Reach Your Vision