Marie-Claire AssekoThis is a summary of the Season 1 – Episode 2 of The Kaizen Gal podcast titled “Bring your Vision to Fruition”.
In my take on productivity addiction, I mentioned how the drive to perform and be productive has to be balanced. To that effect, you want to embed that balance in your vision for your life.
Today I will be exploring what having a vision is, and why it is such a powerful compass to have with regards to personal development and growth. I strongly believe that a vision for your life is a useful, positive and mindful habit that can help bring discernment and clarity to many areas of life.
What Is a Vision?
According to the Harvard Business Review, a “vision” is an aspirational picture of future success.
I define a vision as a mental blueprint for success of sorts; a picture of something that you want to achieve, sort of like an aspirational target. Having a clear vision can bring with it discipline to the individual as well as provide clarity on what they should be doing.
Think of it as a planned-out route. You cannot be expected to go somewhere if you do not know how to get there. A vision gives you that sense of direction.
Vision is the ability to see the invisible. Vision is out of reach but not out of sight.
– Myles Munroe
How To Create a Vision?
To create a vision, you should first think about what gets you excited or brings you joy. Finding an answer to this question can help you begin to consider what is something that you can genuinely visualize yourself doing if you could do absolutely anything. It is also important to identify what you excel at, more so than others. Also, sometimes, it feels like we naturally gravitate towards certain things (topics, activities, etc.) in life which could be pointers towards our vision.
Considering your aspirational vision will lead you to outline other important aspects of your life, which will balance and support one another: your future, your social life, your priorities, your hobbies, significant life decisions, etc. Having a vision will bring clarity to these definitions – in a sense, a vision will make it simpler to recognize which decisions benefit the bigger picture of your vision.
You should revisit your vision frequently as a way to motivate yourselves to new levels of performance and clarity. I typically do it once a year with strategic reassessments or adjustments at the end of each quarter.
Without a vision, there is no discipline. No self-control.
Vision is the source of discipline.
What Makes a Good Vision?
You may be wondering what makes a good vision then? Well, a good vision should not be one that is self-serving. I don’t define a vision as one that only benefits the individual who is holding the vision. I’m talking about creating visions that impact others; whether be your community or th world, not just the onlooker. Regardless of the scale or scope of the impact, I believe that anyone can be someone that brings meaningful contributions to everyone else and not just themselves.
Seek to become a person of value.
Parting Advice
You have be unapologetic about your vision and what it entails: not everyone can go with you nor will they understand the direction you are taking, the destination you’re headed towards.
You will certainly run into people who will disagree with your vision (even if your vision is altruistic), and you should not let this dishearten you though: differing opinions are perfectly normal and acceptable and will challenge you into a more precise vision. But if you believe that the path you are on to reach your goal is the correct one, you should not worry about or take to heart what other people think about it.
One final note for you to reflect upon: while you should not apologize for your vision in favor of maintaining consensus with others, you also want to be considerate, humble, and nimble in how you receive feedback on it.
