Create a vision that pulls you forward (and why it may be time to revisit yours)
Image: Gaelle Marcel
When I was in the midst of a major reinvention, I wrote out a big vision for life as I imagined I wanted it to be. I’d done “vision work” before, but this time it was not one of those business-y vision statements or my usual list of ambitious annual goals. This was a full-on, juicy, detailed, essay about the life I wanted to be living, what my daily life was like, from my home and schedule to the work I imagined myself doing and the vacations I planned to take.
It started with a laundry list of what I really, really wanted and ended up three small-type pages long. It didn’t look like my current reality. At the time, my life was in upheaval. I’d lost my home in a fire. And although I loved my job, I was feeling the stress of being short-staffed, under-budgeted and knowing that it wasn’t my long-term plan.
At that time, writing a vision was more than an exercise in getting clear (though that alone is always worth the time spent on writing it down). It was empowering. I saw it as a chance to get out in front of a seeming runaway train and start intending something different for myself. To start calling more shots. That comforted me and it fired me up. The act of doing the writing—and creating a vision book (like a vision board but inside a beautiful handcrafted journal gifted to me by a friend)—revitalized my creative energy. It was also hard.
Fear showed up to tell me that I was wasting my time, that I had no clue how to actually set these plans in motion or sustain them if they did happen, that the whole vision and intention practice is a bit too “woo” for me, that 10 years out is a ridiculously long time…
I heard all that, but gratefully, I didn’t listen. Vision practices have since become a big part of my life and my work.
In this historic period of career-shifting, job-shifting, and lifestyle interruption and reinvention, visioning is incredibly relevant.
As you start to look ahead to next year, I encourage you to spend some time revisiting your vision. (I just started writing an updated one in my favorite planner.) If you're part of the Great Resignation, if you're starting or running a business, if you're making significant change personally or professionally, it's time to revisit the vision.
Having that big picture framework makes annual planning and any decisions about new goals to take on so much simpler. Keeping reminders close at hand helps keep the focus on what matters. Your vision becomes a touchstone.
Every few years, I revisit and create from a new place, but I still have that old, original version in a file. With one small exception (an exception that I chose), within 5 years it was so much like my life that reading it still gives me goosebumps.
This is why I'm such a proponent of hashing out a clear vision, even when my clients find it challenging or resist. Over and over, I've seen firsthand how a longer-term dream can pull you forward and open up thinking beyond what feels possible in the moment.
In fact, research at the crossroads of neuroscience and coaching is showing that having a longer-term vision for our lives and careers creates fuel and context for our goals and unleashes natural motivation. It shifts thinking from the person we think we ought to be or the reactive version of ourselves to the person that we really are and the experiences we’d love to be having.
This shift is much more empowering and fulfilling than a list of goals with deadlines, and definitely more meaningful than a bunch of self-improvement and career-building projects. Centering that vision in your values, strengths, desires, priorities helps to ground it who you are and what you dream for yourself.
It’s how the reality is reinvented.
When you think about how you want to live and work, what’s the vision that pulls you forward?
Is that what you’re working towards at the moment?
The vision isn’t just the what; it’s the why. It's so much harder to have and enjoy what you most want—whether that’s a feeling, a relationship, a job, a schedule, an outcome or a material desire—when you aren't sure what it looks like or what it’s all for. Sure, you may find that this or that piece falls into place as you stumble along in default mode. You may also waste time with a lot of things that aren’t such a good fit.
What's the real role of a vision? To give yourself direction and the gift of feeling empowered, inspired, nurtured and hopeful. To build a more solid foundation under your goals and resolutions. To know that you have a life road map that resonates with you on a deep level.
I encourage you to take the time to create a vision, especially if you've never done it or if it's been a while. Here are a few ideas to get started:
Clear time from your schedule to sit quietly where you won’t be disturbed. If your home environment is filled with interruptions, consider heading to a park, a coffee shop or a library with your journal or computer.
Ask yourself what you really want your world to look like. Ask yourself if how you are spending your time is how you want to be spending it. Ask yourself how you feel now and whether this is how you want to feel going forward. Expand into blue sky dreaming and don’t hold yourself to the paths that you see clearly marked in front of you.
Try a visualization or meditation. If you have trouble exploring your desires and dreams, consider visualizing yourself in the future. You might have a conversation with this future you, or just observe what’s happening. A guided meditation can also be helpful to lift you out of your thinking mind.
Then write. Take as much or as little time as you need. Imagine your life as you’re living it 10 years from now and write from the perspective of being there. Include as wide or as narrow a focus as you like: work, business, career, health, relationships, environment, community, whatever matters to you. Get as detailed as you can so that you can truly feel what it's like to be there, inside your own story. Please, don’t try to make it perfect. Let yourself want what comes up for you.
Create a visual reminder of your vision. Craft a vision board or journal with cut out or printed images. Create an original art piece or purchase an item or a piece of clothing that speaks to your vision. Use technology to create a visual representation of your vision. Draw. Whatever most energizes you, use that to help you bring that vision into visual life.
Be sure to ground your vision in your values, your priorities, your strengths, purpose and passions. The idea is that this process, and your resulting vision, feel inspiring enough and authentic to you that they energetically pull you towards the goals and actions that will get you where you want to be. They will also serve as a practical tool for creating inspiring one-year plans or meaningful goals that will stretch you and fulfill you, grounding your goal setting in the larger picture of what matters most to you.
Stay in the big picture and don't get bogged down in thinking about how it's all going to come about. It's much more effective to set out the larger long-term vision and then create the individual action plans when you're clear on how all the pieces fit together. Short-term “visions” end up too much like plans. Use the expansiveness of future thinking to open up new possibilities for your life and your work. You can always plan later, and when you do you’ll have much more to work with.
I'd love to hear what your visioning experience is like. If it’s time to reimagine your view of the future and your plans for creating it, give this exercise a try and let me know how it goes. If it’s time to reimagine your future and get started on plans for creating it, we can also do it together.
