Creating a vision for your life might seem silly or unproductive, but it is actually proven to be one of the most effective strategies for achieving the life of your dreams.
Think of your life’s vision like a helpful roadmap that guides you to your intended destination and motivates you to stay the course when you face challenges or obstacles on your journey.
Creating a vision is particularly important for leadership development and personal growth because it allows you to visualize your goals and then take actionable steps towards making those goals a reality. And those who have a clear idea of where they are going in life are also those that are ensuring their core values are being fulfilled and realized every day.
This leads to a life filled with more vitality, joy, and happiness.
Intrigued? Read on to discover how to create your vision as well as how to cultivate it, allowing it to develop and grow, so that you can finally reach a place of fulfillment, happiness, and peace.
What does “creating your vision” mean?
Creating your vision is a multi-step process that involves re-learning how to dream. Most of us, when we were small children, had an almost unlimited supply of dreams — dreams about imaginary places, dreams about the world, and dreams about ourselves. We dreamt that we would become an EMT or a teacher or the first woman to step foot on the Moon. There was no limit to our dreams.
Yet, as we got older, for many of us, those dreams crumbled. The realities of life put pressure on our dreams, straining them, and eventually breaking them into pieces entirely. We lose sight of our place in the world, and begin feeling lost or disillusioned.
Creating a vision for your life brings us back to that time in our lives when we could dream, and not just that, but dream with conviction. This kind of dreaming leads to self-belief, and self-belief leads to self-awareness and efficacy. We again begin to believe that we can actually accomplish the things we dream about.
After that breakthrough, creating a vision involves consciously creating your path towards having a life you love, and then starting to walk down that path.
How do you create your vision?
There are many strategies to create a vision, but the recommended method is to work with a coach or attend a group session where people get together to perform self-work and find their true place in life.
No matter how you choose to create your vision, the first step involves having that “breakthrough” moment that we talked about earlier. You have to dig deep, past all of the negative comments and thoughts, through all the pain and the self-hatred, and unearth the raw roots of who you were meant to be.
Once you know yourself — your true, best self — you can begin to envision your place in life, where you belong, and what you want to achieve. This is your “destination.” Now it is time to build a roadmap — a guide that will lead you down the path so you can reach your destination.
How do you build and follow your roadmap to the destination?
Building your roadmap first requires you to envision your destination. After all, how will you know where to start if you don’t have an end in mind? From there, no matter what your ideal destination is, you can backwards plan a route that will take you from where you are now to where you want to be.
When building and following your roadmap, there are a number of recommended practices to consider. For instance, if you struggle with maintaining your self-belief and self-confidence or sometimes allow negative thoughts to distract you from your goals, then you may need to perform some self work involving calling out your limiting beliefs and replacing them with new, positive beliefs.
This process could look like:
1. Call Out Your Limiting Beliefs
Write down something that you often tell yourself that restricts your own success. WRite down actions that you do because of this limiting belief.
2. Evaluate Using Mood Scale
Decide what mood that limiting belief puts you in.
3. Consider the Impact
Write down what impact your limiting belief has on others and on yourself.
4. Replace with New Beliefs
Write down new and positive beliefs.
5. Action Plan
Write down what actions you’ll take to make your new beliefs come true.
6. Set Goals
With your new beliefs and set of actions, set goals for yourself. When you set a goal, make sure it’s realistic and within a set time frame.
7. Hold Yourself Accountable
Hold yourself accountable for your goals. Do what you say you are going to do.
A roadmap such as this takes into account the challenges or obstacles that you will inevitably face along the way, but provides you with a plan so that you can avoid or overcome those roadblocks. This allows you to continue making progress along the path towards having a life that you love.
Another key component of building and following your roadmap is establishing your core values.
How do you establish your core values?
Establishing core values is integral to the process of creating and cultivating your vision. Core values are your fundamental beliefs and guiding principles that dictate your behavior. They are what help people understand right from wrong and create a path for goal fulfillment.
Core values are also immensely helpful when you’re building and following your roadmap. They help you stay the course when the realities of life try to sway you from the path. They are what guide you in your heart (quite literally, at your core) and what shape the life that you dream about for yourself.
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Creating a vision, building and following a roadmap, and establishing core values are vital strategies that work together and complement each other in order to provide you with the life you’ve always wanted. They require hard work, deep internalization, and immense perseverance, but the result is well worth it.
At Keen Alignment, we help people just like you create their visions and build their roadmaps towards leading lives that they love. We are committed to empowering, transforming, and unleashing the potential in others. If you’re interested in starting your journey, reach out to us today or learn more at keenalignment.com.
