Couple years ago I was at a very unhappy place… overwhelmed, overworked, out of balance, not seeing the way out of this vicious circle. My deadlines were falling through the cracks, my family was falling apart, but I kept moving forward hoping this will change for better once I achieve next milestone, get another client and make more money.
What a lie!
Once you’re on a downward spiral, it’s foolish to expect to get to a higher place in life! What you need instead, is to leave the wrong road and start moving in different direction.
Today I want to talk about one of the most important elements of living a balanced and well-organized life:
VISION
Normally we hear about vision in a business setting, but I strongly believe that it’s an important piece of any structure – any department, team, business, even family or life.
According to Dictionary.com, vision is defined as “the act or power of anticipating that which will or may come to be”. In this sense, vision paints a picture about your business or life helping you and those around you understand where you’re heading and what you’re working to create.
When creating your personal or business vision, you’re creating your future. You’re putting in words what you want your business, family and life to be in a long term – 20 or 25 years from now. Describing it in words makes it super powerful.
Here are the parts you want to cover in your vision:
- Personal: Are there any personality traits that you think need changing? Are there any habits you would like to kick? How fit do you want to be?
- Family: How important is family for you? Where would you like to be in 20, 25 years from now? What will your relationship with your family look like?
- Professional: Where do you want to be professionally in 20-25 years?
- Financial: How would your ideal lifestyle look like if you were to design it from scratch? What would you ideally like to earn and how much savings would you like to have?
- Spiritual: What would you like to see in your life in the years to come? How much time would you like to spend reading, growing, evolving? How about supporting those around you?
- Social: Are you dreaming about making a difference in the world by using your resources to help others? In what area? In what extent?
- Other interests: How often would you like to travel and where? What about your hobbies?
Write a list of results you’d like to see in the areas mentioned above. Make sure that you focus on what YOU want, not your parents, partner or friends. Only then you will feel motivated to WANT to achieve them.
Once you’re done, carefully go through your list and trim it down to a select few that you feel really motivated and driven to achieve.
Today I want you to dream about your life and your future. What would you do, who would you like to become if you knew you can’t fail? Allocate at least 15-30 min. to this assignment. If you already did this before, this is a great time to revisit your VISION and tweak it to make sure it is still aligned with your current hopes and dreams.
Question: Why do you think writing a vision statement is important for your business and/or life? If you have written vision statement in the past, how often do you revisit it? Is it vital part of everything you do or has it faded off?