The key to sustained growth and development in becoming the fullest expression of your unique, God-given design is a compelling vision. In this post, it's my aim to show you what a vision is, how important a vision is, and how you can craft your very own vision.

WHAT IS A PERSONAL VISION?

Vision, according to The Highlands Company is defined as, "Your personal vision [of] how you commit to living your life. 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, family of origin, and stage of adult development."

That's a pretty good definition to start with. So, how will you commit to living your life? What kind of person do you aspire to be? As you probably concluded already, this is not the sort of thing you can simply sit down and hammer out over one cup of coffee. But run through those questions once more, slowly:

How will you commit to living your life?

What kind of person do you aspire to be?

James Clear, in his book Atomic Habits, speaks of a woman who lost 100 pounds simply by asking one question, "What would a healthy person do?" She determined she was going to be a healthy person (see question #2 above) and she set out to prove it to herself at every opportunity. 

When standing at the elevator and set of stairs, she asked herself, "What would a healthy person do?" and took the stairs. When looking at a menu with either a juicy hamburger or a big salad, she asked herself, "What would a healthy person do?" and ordered the salad.

You see, a personal vision is the person you decide you're going to be and then you can set out to prove it to yourself.

WHY IS VISION SO IMPORTANT?

When we get inspired to change, we are filled with Uninformed Optimism. "How great it's going to be when I achieve the goal of ___ !" you say to yourself. You're inspired, invigorated, and optimistic.

But then you begin to notice the sacrifice required to achieve the goal. It's not going to be easy. Congratulations! You just reached Informed Pessimism. This is when you face the reality of the journey you're on and it's not going easy. So you have negative emotions. But wait, it gets worse.

If you've stuck it out through Informed Pessimism, you are assuming the sacrifices. You're doing what you need to do. It's not easy but you're doing it. Yet, you're still not seeing any results. Boom! You're in the stage called the "Valley of Despair." (No wonder so many people dislike change).

It's when you're in the Valley that a compelling vision does its most important work. Without a vision, you join the throngs of people who set out with great enthusiasm to tackle some life change and eventually go back to the way things were.

But not you! No, you are working with a powerful tool: Your compelling vision. Your vision will be the partner you need when you're traveling through the Valley of Despair until you reach the next phase, Informed Optimism.

Informed Optimism is a great phase. It means you are starting to see some results from your efforts. You start to think, "Hey, maybe I CAN be the kind of person I want to be!" It's so invigorating to be at this stage. You're proving it. You can do it!

But you cannot reach that phase without a compelling vision. That's why vision is so important.

HOW TO CREATE A PERSONAL VISION (ACTION STEP)

Step One: 

• Make a list of words that resonate with you. Start by going to a site that has a list of descriptive words. Here's one such page: https://www.enchantedlearning.com/wordlist/adjectivesforpeople.shtml

• Pick out all the words from the list that contain some value to you. They jump off the screen at you. This will help get your creative juices flowing.

Step Two:

• Group your list of words by affinity. For example, all the words that deal with spirituality go together, put all the financial words together, etc.

Step Three:

• Start with a 15-sentence statement of vision. Don't worry about grammar or perfection. Just write 15 sentences based on the words you've grouped together. Then pare down the 15 sentences to the most important 10 sentences. Then reduce it to 5 sentences. Then 1 sentence.

• By now you will have a long statement (15 sentences), an executive summary (5 sentences), and an elevator pitch (1 sentence).

• Don't be fooled by the simplicity. Yes, it's simple. But that doesn't mean easy. It will take time. You will struggle until you are happy with the result. You may also want to bound your Step Three by a few close relationships to see what they think.

CONCLUSION

So I trust you now know enough to begin crafting your own personal compelling vision. It will be needed as you enter the new year. In fact, over the holiday season is a great time to do the exercise because we all tend to be more reflective as the current year ends and the new year comes into view.

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