If you’ve read a business book, listened to an entrepreneurial podcast or attended a leadership webinar lately, chances are you’ve heard the word “Vision”. At the same time, chances are that no one really told you what Vision actually means, or how to do it for yourself.
What is a Vision?
A Vision is a description of your definition of success at a specific point in the future. It is an extremely specific yet intentionally vague picture of how you want your life to look like in 5 years in every aspect, including personal, professional, relational, financial and spiritual.
The two parts of this definition are key:
Vision is about your definition of success. Not your colleague's or competitor’s definition, not your family's or society’s definition. YOURS. This also means it’s not your former self’s definition of success and it may not be your definition of success 10 years down the road, either. It’s about how you define success for the next chapter of your life.
And that brings us to the second part of this definition – “at a specific point in the future”. I mean a specific day of a specific month of a specific year. And the idea is that you will literally get to that day, of that month, of that year, you will read your Vision out loud, and it will be the reality you have created around you. Not because of a magic pill or silver bullet, but because you were intentional and proactive about making decisions that led you there.
Visioning works by giving you a filter to make decisions through
The Visioning process is about much more than just closing your eyes and thinking about what you want. You need to first peel back the layers of your past and your present to understand what you truly want, what your core values are, your nonnegotiables, and your driving purpose. These tenets make it easier to fully envision a life you are and will continue creating.
How Visioning helps you make better decisions
That specific point in the future creates a crucial layer of context. Success means different things to us at different times in our lives, so in order to clarify our Vision we need to know what timeframe we’re working with. For example, you might define success for yourself very differently when you have young kids and when you’re an empty nester. Specificity is also important because it helps us make better decisions, faster.
When making a decision, ask:
Does this get me closer to, or farther away from, my Vision?
Is this an opportunity, or a distraction disguised as an opportunity?
Your gut reaction will always tell you what decision aligns best with your Vision.
My most recent 5 Year Vision (for June 21st, 2022), talks about becoming an organizational ninja. I have a lot of work to do to get there, and if there was no date in my Vision, how would I be able to create an effective plan? In order to work backwards from our Vision and create the Roadmap to get there, we’ve got to know the timeframe we’re working with.
Imagine you wanted to drive from California to Virginia, but you had no clue how long it would take to get there. It would be really hard to plan your trip! A 5 day road trip would look and feel very different than one that lasted a month and would change everything about your preparation, the trip itself and your arrival.
So next time you hear the word Vision, use it as a chance to think about your definition of success at a specific point in the future.
If you are looking for a Visioning course to walk you through the process, you’re in the right place.