We can spend more time planning a one-week vacation or what we are going to wear a night out on the town than identifying what outcomes we want to see in the major areas of our lives.
This kind of mindset can lead a person to wander aimlessly from day to day, week to week and year to year with no clear direction in mind. For this reason, it is necessary that everyone should take the time to create a written vision plan to give their life direction.
The power of a personal vision statement
A personal vision statement is your GPS that guides you to the destination designed for your life. It ensures you stay focused on your vision’s plan and not get involved with anything or anyone that will sidetrack. It is your guiding light to lead you through the storms and obstacles that will challenge your direction.
Don’t let the enormity of your vision dissuade you from writing it down and taking action. I encourage you to write your vision statement in explicit details. Don’t leave anything out. Don’t let others discourage you. Don’t let your present situation detour you.
Please know that your life’s vision is not based upon:
- What you have or do not have.
- What others say or do not say.
- How much money you have or do not have.
- Whether you are a CEO or janitor.
- If you completely understand it or not.
It is based upon who you are purposed to be and what you are destined to do in this present time.
The Seven reasons
Here are seven reasons why you need a written vision plan:
1. It empowers you to clarify your life’s direction. The CEO has a business plan to guide the company. A football coach has a game plan to lead his team. A builder uses a blueprint to construct a house.
A written vision plan empowers you to construct and clarify your life. It gives you the correct directions and coordinates to follow. It gives you the inspiration and motivation you need to move forward even in the face of fear. If you don’t have a written vision it is time to sit down and start developing one.
2. It allows you to guard your life against imbalances. A written vision plan helps you focus on the things essential to living your best life. It helps you maintain a healthy balance between where you are and where you desire to go.
Some people sacrifice their family for a career. Others sacrifice their health for temporary pleasure or a nurturing relationship with their children for worldly success. If you want a healthy marriage, a successful career, productive children, stable finances or good health, it is possible, if you have a clearly written vision plan that maintains a cohesive balance with all the areas of your life.
3. It helps you filter the distractions. A filter is a device used to extract impurities from air or water. A written vision plan can be described as a filter that extracts the distractions and discouragements that interferes with your life’s direction.
A written vision plan allows you to say “yes” to what matters most and “no” to those activities detrimental to your vision. It gives you the clarity and confidence you need to make the most of your potential opportunities. What distractions do you need to filter in living your vision?
4. It aids you in identifying where you are. A written vision not only points you to the future, but it aids you in identifying where you are. Because you must know where you are to get to where you desire to be.
You may have to acknowledge that you need to make external and internal life changes. You may realize that you must make immediate changes to your present position to open opportunities for a better future.
Identifying where you are helps you face the direction of your vision against the backdrop of your current realities. When you are honest about your current realities, your written vision empowers you with the right instructions and insights you need to make right decisions.
5. It equips you to move towards a better future. A ship that set sail for an island destination is equipped with a compass that navigates its direction, a rudder to help the pilot steer the ship and a plan to set a course to its destination. In the same way, a written vision becomes your compass, rudder and plan to direct your steps toward a productive today and a profitable future.
When you are equipped to move towards your destined future, your focus will shift from yesterday’s problems to today’s possibilities for tomorrow’s promises. What do you desire for your future (spiritually, relationally, physically, socially, mentally, financially and professionally)?
6. It serves as your road map. Back in the day people used road maps to get to their destinations. With today’s technological advances the road map changed from a printed map to a GPS. A GPS gives you the directions you need in seconds. If the directions change, it recalibrates within a few seconds to give an alternate route.
Your vision plan acts as a GPS for your life. Please know that you will hit some potholes and encounter roadblocks. But, your vision gives you the turns and alternate routes you need to take to get you to your ultimate destination. Being clear on where you want to be is deeply important and pursuing it passionately helps you grow and develop into the person you were designed to be.
7. It inspires you to focus forward without holding on to past regrets. The World is waiting for you to make an impact with your vision. Many people live with debilitating regrets because life is not turning out the way they anticipated. They live daily with disappointment, discontentment and discouragement, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You do not have to let past regrets hold you hostage from living a better life.
We have all experienced something from our past that if we had the opportunity for a redo, we would do things differently. The reality is, you do not get an opportunity for a redo. Your job is to focus your energy on what you can do today to live effectively so that you will not repeat the bad decisions and mistakes from your past.
While you cannot control everything that happens in your life, you can take the time to write and implement a vision plan. A written and implemented vision plan will dramatically improve your chances of ending up at the destination you desire.
“Without a written vision and a plan to achieve it, you will never live to your full potential.” Bernard Haynes
Question: What steps do you need to take create and implement a written vision plan? Leave a comment below.
Originally published at journal.thriveglobal.com