Develop a Clear Vision for your Future

One definition for the word vision is the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom. Focusing on this definition we quickly see that a vision requires you to think carefully about how you make something a reality for your future, using creative faculties and using experience, knowledge and good judgment for it. This implies that you need to have some understanding of what you want. What do you want? This question is not always easy to answer, but it can be done when broken down. Here are some things you can do to help you determine you crystal clear vision.

List your experiences

There is a lot you have achieved regardless of whether you respect them as achievements or not. The aim of this exercise is to recognise as many achievements as you can, on paper. To help you think of the following categories as examples:

• Academic
• Certifications
• Work experiences
• Life Experiences
• Awards
• Recognitions
• Other credentials

When you have done this, write out in a column next to them, whether you are still doing these things, and what you had learned when in the pursuit of achieving these credentials.

Capture your hallmark experiences

Now that you have highlighted your achievements, on a separate page write out your hallmark experiences that have made an impact to the way you think, behave and act. Things to write about could include:

• Financial issues
• A failed relationship
• Managing a business
• A Job dissatisfaction or satisfaction
• A major achievement
• Your sporting journey
• Your family struggle
• Hospitalisation or a time you were seriously ill

What happened in these situations and what did you learn? In other words, what advice would you give yourself now based on these experiences? Once you have done this, write a word or phrase that describes the value you obtained from that experience. The word could be ‘security’ or ‘integrity’ or ‘wealth’.

Highlight your preferences

Next, write out the things that you like to do, the things you would like to have, and the things you’d like to be. In the same token, you may want write out what you don’t want. In order to prioritise your preferences, you may want to rate them out of 10 so it becomes clear as to what your heart appears to be set on. You may get a host of things that come out with the same number, but don’t worry about that, you can always assess those preferences, and truly pick which ones you want the most

Put it all together

Now that you have done all of these things, look at your information and see what it is saying. What are the main themes? What stands out to you? Do the themes appear to make sense? With all of this in mind, you can start to picture the sort of future you want. The next step is about clarity define the following:

• Who you want to be
• Why you want to be it
• How you will be it
• The impact it will have on you and others
• How it will make you feel

 

For example, “I want to be an owner of a global independent marketing agency, because I have a distinct interest in helping businesses reach their audience. I will do this by enrolling onto marketing training programmes and practicing the strategies weekly. It will help business owners reach a wider audience making them feel confident about their business. This will make me feel alive and in control of my destiny, which is something I crave for and will obtain more frequently.”

This is just a simple and short example but bears in mind that your vision statement needs to be clear and simple. More importantly,

it needs to be congruent and align with what you truly want to to do, have and be in life.

Your reminders

To help present your vision to you every day do the following:

1. Research what you need to do to get to your vision. Understand what has been done and write out what you need to do
2. Learn about and find the people in the field who have done these things. Learn about their story and their journey
3. Print out your vision statement and stick or pin it to a board, wall or mirror; preferably in a prominent place you can see it
4. Create a vision board, either digital or physical and put up images that really remind you of your vision
5. Tell appropriate people about your vision and what you set out to do
6. Before you go to bed and when you wake up say your vision. You may even want to record you saying it and set it as your alarm
7. Find a mentor or coach to help you get to your vision
8. in addition find an accountability buddy, who you talk to at least bi-weekly to help you get closer to your vision
9. Create mastermind of people who want to achieve great heights! Meet with them at least monthly to review progress, and next steps
10. Go to events, trainings and courses that will help you meet more people and develop the skills you need to
11. Develop the right environments online and offline to usher you closer to your vision
12. Read and listen to the right books and videos to help condition your thinking towards reaching your goals
13. Be healthily obssessed; Rinse and repeat

THAT’S HOW YOU DEVELOP A CRYSTAL CLEAR VISION!

 

I hope you enjoyed the read and it was useful to you. If you would like more help with your vision, specifically if you have a service based business and want to take it from idea to launch, feel free to message me at info@michaeltabirade.com. Alternatively, feel free to check out my books Understand Reach Expand and Desire, which are truly the theses to this post. Enjoy your day!