How to develop a vision for yourself and your career
Know yourself comes first
I can't emphasize it enough: Self-knowledge comes first in any coaching process. Life satisfaction can only come about if you know yourself well. And you are also prepared to get to know yourself again and again. You do not stand still, but go forward - a life can only be lived forwards and understood backwards.
And for a strong vision you also need self-knowledge. Who am I? What moves me? How do I react?
My vision as inspiration for you
Many say: I have a vision! What they really mean is: I have a goal. If you want to work virtually from the beach, that is a goal, not a vision. Since we talk about "vision board" and link goals with pictures and since in the business world we often talk about visions, this has been watered down a bit. A vision is an idealistic and emotional statement about something that moves you deeply from within yourself. Literally, it gets you moving. It's what you get up for every day.
My vision is a world in which balance is achieved, interpersonal relationships are successful and the development of potential is possible.
By successful relationships I mean: we can meet others at eye level, take ourselves and others seriously, can verbalize our needs and are capable of conflict.
By enabled potential development I mean: We can live our potential authentically and self-confidently, take ourselves and others seriously, can verbalize our needs and are capable of conflict.
My Mission
My mission is derived from this and reads as follows: I coach women so that they gain self-knowledge, thereby taking control of their leadership role and their lives in a self-effective way and are therefore more satisfied and successful.
As a result, encounters can be positive and profitable because they are not entered into out of a sense of lacking something. My coachees take the space they need and let others have their space as well. Because they are authentic, balanced and confident.
3 powerful questions to develop a vision for yourself
I have put together a few questions for you that I have asked myself time and again. Maybe this will help you find your vision.
What moves me again and again?
What values are important to me?
How do I imagine a beautiful world and what would it take?
Ideally, the goals you set for yourself will then pay off your vision. This way you can define concrete and feasible steps and live your vision authentically in everyday life.
The Benefits of Creating a Personal Vision Statement
You might be wondering why you should go to the effort of creating a personal vision statement, especially if you’re already driven and goal-oriented. What’s in it for you? Will the benefits outweigh the time and effort?
Personal vision statements bring a lot of benefits to the people who have them. There’s not enough space to cover all the benefits you’ll get from creating your own vision statement, so here are the top three.
It gives you a sense of direction
A personal vision statement will provide you with a feeling of direction, of knowing where you are right now and where you are trying to go. This motivates you and makes your work feel meaningful. This is something most humans crave, especially in a world as chaotic as the modern one.
If you start to feel lost or rudderless, all you have to do is look at your vision statement to help you realize the truth. This is an important psychological benefit -don’t underestimate it!
It helps motivate you
Motivation isn’t something you feel all the time. It comes and it goes. Sometimes you’ll be more motivated than others. Sometimes you won’t want to work on your goals at all, either because you’re too busy or you’re frustrated at a lack of progress.
Lack of motivation is where discipline becomes important but getting your motivation back is also a prime goal.
Personal vision statements have been shown to provide additional motivation when it’s lagging. It can provide you with that extra “oomph” you need to keep pushing and get yourself over the finish line when times are tough.
It provides a framework for decision making
Making decisions is part of being an adult and sometimes it becomes hard to make decisions that keep us moving forward towards where we want to be in life and that are aligned with our values.
A personal vision statement helps with decision-making by providing a framework you can use to evaluate options, especially for complex decisions. Which options move you towards accomplishing your next goal? Which will move you further away from it? Which ones would let you uphold your values? Would any require you to break your values?
You can use this yes/no framework to decide which options to evaluate further and which to eliminate. This takes the stress out of decision-making and lets you make decisions that will help you succeed.
Vision board and Journalling
I think a vision board can help you to find answers to the questions - a valuable tool for me to develop clear goals from my vision. I like to work on my vision board because I always take the time to formulate my goals, and this way I deal with my vision on a regular basis. I am a visual person and this way I always have my goals in front of my eyes. Additionally it helps me to create and store a feeling for things I have never experienced in my brain by using this visual language. And what´s also super important: Many of my goals are often things that cause a paradigm shift for me. Or in other words: Our brain does not know this feeling and therefore the way to get there. So, we have to convince our brain that our goal is really attractive and that the change holds something positive for us. Otherwise, it will always fall back into old ways and we will only get closer to our goals very slowly and sluggishly. Read more about vision boards here.
Journaling is also a good approach to find answers to these questions. I am going to dedicate a separate blog to this method.
Next Steps
You also want to create a vision board and establish good routines with it?
I will tell you in January 23 why the vision board is a good tool, how you can use it for yourself and your goals, how you can create your own vision board and how you can integrate it into your daily life, so that it supports you to set the focus right. You will get a guidance and an email follow up from me.
Here is the link to sign up to the career impulse 5 steps to success - achieve your goals and dreams with a vision board.
In my coaching I can support you individually to find your vision and to create your vision board. If you have any further questions, just drop me a line anytime.
Here is the link to book a discovery call. My program SHOW UP! can help you with the preparation phase.
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