Why You Should Use Your Vision to create your own World. Your vision is what you want to be, do, feel, think, own, associate with, and impact in the future. It is how you commit to living your life, and it influences all areas including family, spirituality, physical well-being, leisure, and work.
A clear personal vision is an integration of your abilities, interests, personality, values, goals, skills/experience.
“Live the Life of Your Dreams: Be brave enough to live the life of your dreams according to your vision and purpose instead of the expectations and opinions of others.” ~ Roy T. Bennett,
Goals are individual experiences and accomplishments you strive for. But a vision is the bigger picture.
Your life’s vision defines who you want to be, what you want to be known for, and the set of experiences and accomplishments you aim for. Your vision helps define the goals by giving you a framework to evaluate those goals.
If you live your life with a vision in mind, you are more likely to succeed far beyond what you could otherwise achieve without a clear vision.
“Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.” ~Roy T. Bennett,
Think of crafting your life vision as mapping a path to your personal and professional dreams. Life satisfaction and personal happiness are within reach.
The harsh reality is that if you don’t develop your own vision, you’ll allow other people and circumstances to direct the course of your life.
Don’t expect a clear and well-defined vision overnight—envisioning your life and determining the course you will follow requires time and reflection. You need to cultivate vision and perspective, and you also need to apply logic and planning for the practical application of your vision.
The best vision blossoms from your dreams, hopes, and aspirations. It will resonate with your values and ideals and will generate energy and enthusiasm to help strengthen your commitment to explore the possibilities of your life.
Describe your ideal life in detail. Allow yourself to dream and imagine, and create a vivid picture. If you can’t visualize a picture, focus on how your best life would feel.
If you find it difficult to envision your life 20 or 30 years from now, start with five years—even a few years into the future will give you a place to start. What you see may surprise you. Set aside preconceived notions. This is your chance to dream and fantasize.
Focus on the result and don’t think about the process for getting there yet—that’s the next step. Give yourself permission to revisit this vision every day, even if only for a few minutes. Keep your vision alive and in front of your mind.
Always remember that your personal vision guides you in your life, you have to set goals and need to make decisions every day.
Use Your Vision to create your own World. When creating your personal vision, reflect from different perspectives and think of what you desire to have, be, give, and do.
Notwithstanding what your vision would contribute to this world, impact and help your inner circle, or your community. Thinking of this often reveals your real purpose in life.
Creating a vision for your life might seem like a frivolous, or waste of time, but it’s not: creating a compelling vision of the life you want is actually one of the most effective strategies for achieving the life of your dreams.
Perhaps the best way to look at the concept of a life vision is as a compass to help guide you to take the best actions and make the right choices that help propel you toward your best life.
“Dreams are the touchstones of our characters,” Thoreau, a man who delighted in his imagination, once wrote. Your vision is your most important dream or mental picture.
Why You Should Use Your Vision to create your own World. A vision defines the optimal desired future state; it tells of what you would like to achieve over a longer time. You might often see vision and mission portrayed together. These are not the same, although we can sometimes confuse the two.
However, there’s a crucial difference: contrary to vision, your mission describes the status quo, what you are doing right now. It is in line with your current capabilities. Your mission defines the present state.
Describing what you currently do seems inherently advantageous. People want to know what you do. But why should you have a vision? Every individual or organization should have a vision for two reasons:
- First, a vision inspires you and gives you energy. It guides and eventually gives all of your efforts a purpose. Coming to terms with your “why” connects you with your core values and roots you. Your vision unlocks your deepest motivations. Making the connection between your deepest heartfelt values and your everyday work will make you unstoppable.
- Second, it provides guidance in a world of choices. It enables you to focus on what to do (and not do) for those achievements five, ten years, or further in the future. When you are clear about your vision and goals, it is easier to say yes wholeheartedly or say no with an acceptable reason and no fear of rejection.
Use Your Vision to create your own World. When searching for your vision, it is best to do so offsite somewhere you are inspired and not distracted. Rather than your office, think of someplace more inspiring like a small secluded cabin in the mountains or by the sea.
A central question when building your vision will be, “What is my Why?” When you are thinking of this, what are dreams that you have just started work towards or that you should finally start?
Zoom out and concentrate on the biggest, long-term version of your picture. And when formulating your vision, respect the following criteria:
- Unique: Make sure it is unique to you and fits your passion and values. That also involves imagining yourself in the role. Three years from now, what do you look like in that role? How do you see yourself?
- Simple: Write it directly and succinctly so that it is quick to grasp and can be easily repeated by any employee at any given time.
- Focused: Narrow in so it is not too broad.
- Bold: Is it brave and big enough? Stretch yourself rather than staying inside the status quo.
- Beneficial: A good vision has a reason and strives to benefit not only you but also others at the same time. For example, an organization should first serve its customers, but also benefit you or your association at the same time. Profit is a result of excellent service, not a goal in itself.
- Aligned: Your vision and way towards it should be aligned, but most importantly should not contradict each other, for authenticity reasons. For instance, a company that tries to change the world positively also needs to have processes and rules that are positive on the inside.
- Inspiring: Write your vision in an inspirational manner. Think of a sci-fi movie trailer that pulls millions into the cinema; your vision should have a similar magnetic pull to it.
- Engaging: Creating your vision is like building a house: you might not know how to build the house yourself. But you have ideas and images in your mind that you pass onto an architect who helps you create sketches and plans from which to construct and achieve the final product, together.
Overall, a good vision is something you hear once and then never forget. Respecting these criteria will help you achieve that goal.
Use Your Vision to create your own World. Having a visual reminder of your vision is important which is why vividness is key. It is best to have that visualization somewhere near, like your personal vision could be kept close to your bed and your professional vision somewhere at the entrance of your office, or high above your desk. This way you can regularly look up and refer to it.
Keeping it visible can help you stay on track by providing guidance when opportunities or distractions present themselves. Moreover, when you can consistently see your vision, you can always question if your current actions are contributing to that ultimate goal.