I’ll open with these words from Sean Stephenson:
“you better have a vision for what you want. You better be very clear in your mind what you want for your life. What you want for your family. What you want for your business.”
Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? Well, apparently not. I didn’t even get clear on a vision for my future until I was in my thirties. That’s right. For the first 32 years of my existence I meandered aimlessly through life. I didn’t even set goals. You might say I wasn’t taking life seriously. Needless to say, since making the time four years ago to decide what I actually wanted for my future and how on earth I was going to get there, my life has changed. I started setting and accomplishing goals. I discovered new passions. I tripled my income in two years.
The reason I’m sharing this is that through experiencing the two contrasting approaches to life – floating with no direction and letting life happen to me, to living with intention and pursuing what I want – I now consider having a clear vision to be of immeasurable value. I now choose to be the driver over being a passenger. In this article I share with you my view on the what, why and how when it comes to creating a vision for what you want in life. Are you going to be the architect of your future or not?
What even is a vision?
A vision is a clear and compelling picture of what you want your future to look like. It’s where you aspire to be. It’s something that inspires you to jump out of bed in the morning and take on life. It’s as simple as that.
Why have a vision?
A clear picture of your ideal future
So if a vision is a clear picture of what you want your life to look like then surely to not have a vision means you don’t know what you want your future to look like. Is that an acceptable option?
If we can get clear on our vision, it makes recognising the path much easier. Of course, it doesn’t make that path easier to travel but you want to walk the right path though, right?
Live intentionally
We’re here for a finite time. How do we make it count? Without a vision of where you want to be then how many of your everyday actions are aligned to something that’s meaningful to you?
The dangers of not having a vision: floating through life
So let’s consider the alternative. Floating through life with no direction. Sean Stephenson powerfully put it like this:
“If a person does not have their vision clear, then they constantly get blown around by the winds of life. They’re grabbing at straws, they’re just chasing something“.
Before you know it, another 5 years have passed by and you wonder what you’ve been doing. You realise you’ve not been living life intentionally. Life has just been happening to you. Regret sets in.
The dangers of not having a vision: used for someone else’s
If you’re not clear on your own vision then you’ll unknowingly be taken along for the ride as a resource in achieving someone else’s. Just think about it. Unless you are clear on who you are, what you want, who you want to become, you’ll passively take on the vision of someone else. This is most often that of your employer. If that’s what you consciously align to then go all in! But if not, if you don’t take control now, don’t be surprised when you get blindsided down the road with an identity crisis because you don’t know who you are and where you’re going. Be active in shaping your own life. Get behind the wheel of your own destiny. Become the architect of your own future.
How to define your vision
So now we’re clear on what it is and why it’s so important, let’s create a compelling vision!
So to be clear, this is very unlikely to be a 5 minute or even single session process. In fact, it shouldn’t be. This is something you want to think about often, consistently review and refine over time.
What
Firstly, what do you want out of life? Who do you want to become?
If a vision is a clear picture of what you want your life to look like, then how about a collection of pictures? Introducing the vision board! If you’re not familiar with vision boards, put simply, they are visual representations of what you’re trying to accomplish, who you’re aspiring to become, what you want your life to look like, in the form of images and text.
When
When will this vision become a reality? Get specific. What does your life look like in a year? In two years?
Why? Consider Parkinson’s Law that “work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion”. If you don’t get specific, then there’s no deadline. If there’s no deadline, there’s less urgency to get started and you’ll be more likely to adopt the attitude of “I’ll start tomorrow” rather than starting today. Tomorrow never comes. So set yourself a target and start living with some urgency towards the future life you want to live!
Make sure it’s your own
It doesn’t have to be world-changing! This is your vision. Remember, it’s where you aspire to be. You don’t have to try to change the world or be a Gandhi or Steve Jobs. It just needs to be in alignment with you and your values and what your ideal future looks like.
How do you know when you have it?
When you read it back to yourself and it moves you. As Tony Robbins puts it, “it’s got to be something that’s got the power to pull you, not something you’ve got to push yourself to do”.
OK, vision defined! Now what?
Look at it everyday!
Keep your eye on the horizon, on where you’re aiming. Get excited.
Look at your vision board or statement every morning when you wake up and every evening before you go to bed (set yourself a reminder for the first 30 days if it helps!) This will help crystallise that vision in your mind’s eye so that your thoughts and actions will start to align with that vision. Which leads us to the next point.
Beware the agenda of the unconscious mind!
Our unconscious mind has other plans for us. It doesn’t want this exciting future! It wants to keep us rooted here in the safe and comfortable. And for the most part it is in control. Psychologist Sarah Sarkis tells us this about our unconscious mind “95% of all of our behaviour and our thoughts and everything originate from these unconscious realms”. So it’s exciting to design and visualise our ideal future but the transition to it is mostly in small, consistent actions and behaviours. The day to day thoughts and actions, shifting our habits to align with our vision. If we don’t start with these basics the vision will never come to fruition. Our unconscious mind will continue to dictate our thoughts and actions and keep us on the same path.
Consistent, imperfect action everyday
Life will get in the way. It always does. But show up everyday. Now you’re at least facing in the right direction when you get to take a step. And if that’s just a single step everyday, that’s fine! In fact, that is perfect. Consistency trumps intensity every time. Try and prove that statement wrong!
You never have to get there!
Your vision will evolve over time and the beauty of it is that you’ll never get there. Matthew McConaughey said the following regarding the pursuit of his hero:
“So you see every day, every week, every month and every year of my life, my hero’s always 10 years away. I’m never gonna be my hero. I’m not gonna attain that. I know I’m not, and that’s just fine with me because that keeps me with somebody to keep on chasing.”
Check in
When you visualise that future, does it still excite you? Does it matter to you? Are you enjoying the journey? If not, then reassess. Make sure your vision is still aligned to what you want in life. Check in and consciously assess if you’re still aiming at what’s still true to you. My vision now looks nothing like my first vision four years ago but it took a first draft to move me in the right direction to peel back the layers and gain clarity on what I really desire.
Don’t take life too seriously
Stay true to your vision but don’t be militant about it! Your vision should be a desirable place so enjoy the journey. It’s cliché, but really, you must. Become the vision.
Closing thoughts
So that’s my argument for getting clear about what you want in life and getting after it. Like everything, it’ll be of varying importance to people. Personally, having gone from spending 30+ years letting life just happen to me, to defining what I want and pursuing it, I 100% side with making time to determine what you want your future to look like and how to make it become a reality. After all, what’s the alternative? You can either get behind the wheel, take control of your life and create the future you dream of, or you can “get blown around by the winds of life”.
Are you going to be the architect of your future, or what?