How to Create Your Vision
Learn four steps to help you create your vision and move yourself toward excellence.
Lisa B. Marshall
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How to Create Your Vision
This week’s topic: self-leadership. To be effective leaders, first we need to effective leaders of ourselves–and to do that, we need to know our vision.
You Are What You Think
When I was a growing up my parents always used to say to me, “You can do anything you set your mind to.” The problem was that I didn’t believe them. I’d think, “We’ll I tried out for the basketball team and I got cut. I put my mind to that and look what happened. I failed.” Perhaps, what they should have said was, “With vision, perseverance, and action you can do anything you put your mind to.”
My parents were on the right track. They wanted me to understand that I am what I think. That’s an important concept so I’m going to say it again; I am what I think. That is, each of us creates our lives through our thoughts and actions. I really wanted to believe that, but obviously I needed more help. How do I create a vision, how do I overcome obstacles, and how do I create action? What I needed was step-by-step directions for self-leadership.
So in this article, I’ll cover two fundamental tools: First, a mental technique for creating vision, and second, a behavioral technique for goal-setting. Both of these techniques are highly effective and practical ways to achieve self-direction and self-motivation.
So let’s get started with the first technique: creating your vision.
How to Create Your Vision
Leaders don’t let others define their potential. To create your unique vision, it is important to get out of your comfort zone, to get away from people who are negative towards what you’re trying to accomplish, and most importantly, to trust yourself.
Leaders create a vision for their character, their career, and for their life. You need a vision so that when you need to make a decision, solve a problem, or take action you’ve got a roadmap. Perhaps more importantly, having a vision allows you to mentally practice. That is important because research has shown that mental practices are almost as effective as physical practice. In fact, doing both is more effective than either alone.
Step 1: Pick An Objective
So, the first step to creating your vision is to pick an objective. Choose something you want to be, something you want to do, or something you want to have in your life. For example, “I want to be independent,” “I want to win an Olympic gold medal,” or “I want to be a best-selling author.”
Next make an affirmation out of it. You do that by stating it as if it were already true, in the present tense. “I am independent,” “I am an Olympic gold medalist,” “I am a best-selling author.”
Step 2: Picture Your Objective
Next use your imagination to picture your objective. It is important to imagine details. Include what it would feel like, any sounds you might hear, any smells you might smell, and any conversations you might have. Try to feel the emotion of accomplishing this objective.
For example, you might imagine hearing your national anthem and feeling an intense sense of accomplishment as you lean your head forward to receive your Olympic gold medal. Or you might imagine being interviewed on your favorite morning television news program about how you won the gold medal.
Step 3: List Your Affirmation 20 Times!
Next, you’ll want to write out your affirmation using your name.
I, Lisa B. Marshall, am independent.
Lisa B. Marshall, you are an Olympic gold medalist.
Lisa B. Marshall is a best-selling author.
Write it out 15 to 20 times. You can use the first, second, or third person or all of them–it doesn’t matter.
When you are writing the affirmation it is important to continue to imagine accomplishing the objective. Also, keep in mind it’s natural for some negative thoughts to creep into your mind. “I’m won’t be ready to compete in the Olympics” or “Lisa, come on, books about communication skills are boring! Who’s going to buy your book?”
Step 4: Record Your Fears & Articulate Solutions
For now, on the back of your paper, just write down the fears or obstacles as they occur to you. Think about each for a moment, experience the emotion, but then turn your paper back over again, and continue with your affirmation list. The idea is to articulate your fear, experience the emotion of it, and then move on.
That way, later, when you revisit the obstacles, it will be easier to approach them with reasoning, thinking, and planning. If you can distance yourself from the emotion you’ll then be able to articulate possible solutions. “I could train with George Smith who coached three previous gold medal winners.” “I could add an interactive twist to make the book interesting, more newsworthy, and more engaging.” The keys to this step are optimism and persistence. An optimistic problem-solver realizes it’s always possible to resolve setbacks and obstacles. Perhaps more importantly, an optimist views each setback as one step closer to success.
Once you have your vision, including your perceived obstacles and possible solutions, you need to move onto creating your plan of action.
This is The Public Speaker, Lisa B. Marshall. Passionate about communication, your success is my business.
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About the Author
Lisa B. Marshall Lisa holds masters with duel degrees in interpersonal/intercultural communication and organizational communication. She’s the author of Smart Talk: The Public Speaker’s Guide to Success in Every Situation, as well as Ace Your Interview, Powerful Presenter, and Expert Presenter. Her work has been featured in CBS Money Watch, Ragan.com, Woman’s Day, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and many others. Her institutional clients include Johns Hopkins Medicine, Harvard University, NY Academy of Science, University of Pennsylvania, Genentech, and Roche.