Your Vision — Let It Inspire You!

This edition is about Life Visions: creating powerful visions for each major area in your life. By developing a vision for your ideal future, you can empower yourself to transform your life into one which is meaningful and truly fulfilling.

I hope you find at least one idea to inspire and encourage you.

Warmly,

Melanie Ott

Inspirational Quotes

A vision is not just a picture of what could be: it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to be something more. (Rosabeth Moss Kanter)

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. (Carl Jung)

You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction. (Alvin Toffler)

Create Your Life Vision: Building Your Best “You”

Mark Twain once said, “I can teach anybody how to get what they want out of life. The problem is that I can’t find anybody who can tell me what they want.” Visioning is the fine art of building that elusive picture of what you want in order to achieve your most fulfilling life. A vision is your story about your ideal future written in the present tense. It’s a vivid description of you living your purpose in all areas of your life.

Benefits of Visioning

We are all busy people living in a busy, demanding and ever-changing world. By creating a vision of your best, most fulfilling life, visions becomes the road map for achieving that life. A vision serves as a compass keeping you on track and moving in the right direction. It creates clarity and laser-like focus
while synchronizing your time, efforts, and energy towards what you really want. Regardless of whether you create visions for yourself, your team, or your organization, visions help align, energize and guide you towards your ideal future.

​Creating Visions

Start with the end in mind. Picture yourself three to five years from today where you have created the life you truly desire. With pen and paper, describe it in full detail as if it has already happened and you are able to see it, hear it and feel it all around you. Ask yourself what you desire in each part of your life. Where am I living? What is my dream job? What is my ideal relationship? And most importantly, who do I aspire to be?

Peter Block, in his book, Empowered Manager, says most of us grossly underestimate our ability to effect change within ourselves and around us. He urges us to create a “vision of greatness” for our life. Having such a compelling image of our best life helps us create it each day through our every choice and act. Visions transform, portray what is possible, and propel you toward you dreams. Dream big!

Honesty is crucial for successful visioning. Once you have crafted your visions, be brutally honest and assess where you are in life versus where you would like to be. This will provide you with the needed perspective to determine how far you have to go, how hard you will have to work, and how committed you will need be to achieve your visions.

Vision Board

As you build your visions, consider crafting a vision board or collage. Traditionally, vision boards were made with poster board, cut out pictures and words, and glue. A client recently turned me onto great online tools such as Picasa’s photo collage and the gorgeous website Pinterest designed for this very purpose.

The idea behind vision boards is that instead of “thinking” yourself through a visioning exercise, you access your right brain thereby freeing yourself to envision your ideal life without limitations. Surrounding yourself with these appealing images will motivate you to take steps, make choices and change your life to align with your powerful visions.

I created my first vision board when I was a “mature” graduate student. Through this process I was reminded of my love for singing which I had all but abandoned while going back to school, raising a family and pursuing my career. As a result of this exercise, I got up the nerve to audition and join a local
choral group and have been singing with them ever since. This was an “Aha!” moment for me as it helped me refocus on what I wanted in my life.

Next Steps

Finally, we’ve talked before about planning your dreams for success. It’s important to remember that a vision is just a dream without a plan. Once you’ve created a vision for your future life, the next steps are to create a concrete plan and commit to making your vision a reality.

Tips for Creating Powerful Visions

Visioning is a practical and hands-on exercise that can be applied to every part of your life. Make a list of different segments of your life — relationships, career, spirituality, health, family, personal development — and create an inspiring vision for each.

Envision the “calendar of your life.” As you build visions for your future, map out a real or imaginary calendar of your future. Then, create visions for future moments. How do you envision your best life in three months? Six months? One year? Five years?

Build a vibrant vision for your future — be descriptive! Instead of saying, “In one year I want to be promoted to the head of my department,” imagine the day-to-day life and the positive changes you will experience when that becomes your reality. Be specific. Use juicy adjectives and lively verbs to create an active picture of your future life.

Add action steps. Until you build an action plan to accompany your visions, they are only daydreams. For each vision you create, add a list of concrete actions you will take to make that vision your reality.

Reject fear. Fear in our lives can keep us from living up to our greatest potential. When we fear consequences, embarrassment, hard work, the judgment of others, or any of the innumerable roadblocks we build for ourselves, we limit our true potential. When creating your vision for the future, do so without
reservation, listening to your true desires.

Strive for greatness. Refuse to allow your visioning to become mediocre. Your visions should push you to grow into your best you — a person you can be proud of and others will be inspired by. Refuse limitations that would hold you back from greatness.

Further Reading on Vision

6 Guidelines to Create a Vision for the Life You Really Want (Seapoint Center)

See the Future – Personal Visioning (Princeton Performance Dynamics)

Creating Vision Statements with Vision Exercises (Chat at the Cooler)

How to Make a Vision Board (Christine Kane)

Focus on the Future …

How does the concept of visioning relate to your life and career? Creating life visions and planning ahead for long-term success is a rewarding process that results in personal achievement and deep satisfaction.

At Leap Forward Coaching we have a process that will empower you to set personal and professional goals — and develop the character to stick with them, despite setbacks, leading to a more fulfilling, successful, and rewarding life.

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If I have piqued your curiosity about the value of coaching for you or someone you know, please contact me for a complimentary coaching meeting to explore what coaching can do for you.

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