It all started with a vision. Everything you see, the chair, the coffee shop, your phone, your laptop, your car, and even this article that you’re reading right now, was once an idea in someone’s head.
Everything started twice, once in the mind, and once in reality.
The same if you want to manufacture success in life. You must first create a vivid vision of what you want, and only then you can work on it and turn it into reality.
No matter what you want to achieve in life, you must first see it in your mind.
This is why having an empowering life vision is so important. It gives you a clear idea of what you want out of life.
More importantly, when you have a life vision, you are giving instructions to your mind about what kind of life you want to live.
Thus, your mind can then look for details and formulate ways to get there.
Imagine you are completing a jigsaw puzzle, without looking at the completed picture, can you solve the puzzle and finish it?
Most likely not.
And this is just like living life without having a life vision.
When you don’t know the exact outcome of what you want, you will accept anything.
However, when you have a vision, you know what results you are looking for. And hence, you can then actively work on that vision to produce the right results that you desire.
Why you need to have a life vision
Imagine you are sitting on a boat flowing through the current in a river. And life is like that. When you reach a fork in the river, you get to decide where to go.
But if you don’t have a life vision, anything goes. It doesn’t matter which direction you choose because you don’t have a plan for your life.
Most people will just follow the river flow and go wherever the current brings them.
Until one day, they realize that they are just a few feet away from the waterfall.
But it is too late to make any conscious effort or decisions to get them out of the river flow now.
They are going to take a fall. Sometimes it is a financial fall; sometimes it is an emotional fall.
But all of these can be avoided if they make the right decision and take the right turn from the beginning.
This is why having a life vision is important.
You don’t want to live life going wherever the flow brings you. You want to take charge of your own life and take the right path to go to where you want to go.
About 12 years ago, if I didn’t make the decision to start a blog, I will never be where I am right now.
Back in 2007, I started a blog on Blogger.com. Those times, blogging was new and exciting.
One of my relatives told me he started a blog and made some money from Google Adsense, and I’m thrilled. More than that, I’m inspired.
I started to imagine the kind of life where I could earn passive income and work from the comfort of my home.
And so, I began the journey to building my own internet success.
This is the power of having a life vision.
When you know what you want, you can then take conscious action to get there. And twenty years down the line, you will be thankful for the decision that you have made.
How to create your life vision
Now that you knew why having a life vision is important, so how do you create it?
Here’s one thing I want to let you know, there is no right or wrong in creating your life vision.
Yes, there is no such thing as the right vision or the wrong one.
Plus, your life vision can change according to your circumstances. For instance, you may be someone athletic and you create your life vision around sports, but eventually, when you grow older, you may change the vision according to your situation.
And that is perfectly fine.
One more thing, you don’t have to compare your life vision with someone else.
It doesn’t matter if your vision has nothing to do with business. As long as your life vision serves your life and you’re happy and fulfilling, that will be more than enough.
You don’t have to compare or try to match other people’s vision.
That said, you can always alter your life vision whenever you want to.
Remember, your life vision is like a lighthouse. You create it to serve you and to show you the right direction.
If it is not working, you can always change it. So, don’t worry and just get ready with a pen and paper or your journal, and start writing…
1. Identify how your best life is going to be like
First, what you need to do is to practice the “blue sky thinking” and imagine how your best life is going to be like.
At this point, you don’t want to think about the limitations. You just want to be free like a child and imagine a life without any limitation.
What if you have all the money in the world? What will you do? What kind of lifestyle do you want to have? What will you be doing? Are you going to be at where you are and working at the same company? Or are you going to move to another place?
If you find it difficult to envision the future life you want, just take it as if you have hit the jackpot and have won $100 million dollars cash.
So, if you have $100 million dollars in the bank right now, how will your life change?
What are you going to do? How will you spend the money?
Just let your imagination goes wild and envisions the life you want to have. Write down everything.
2. Consider these 6 areas of your life
I bet that you don’t want to be financially successful but not are doing well in the relationship. We all want a good life, from all areas and categories.
Therefore, you can consider these 6 areas when you imagine your life vision:
- Career and finance
- Love and relationship
- Health and fitness
- Personal development
- Fun and experience
- Legacy and contribution
As I have explained in my course, Goal Setting Formula masterclass, these 6 areas set up the fundamentals of your life.
Hence, imagine how you want your life to look like in the future within these 6 areas.
3. Define the success you want
Next, you want to learn to define the success you want. What does it mean to be successful?
More importantly, what has to happen in order for you to feel successful?
Everyone’s definition is different.
For some people, they’re successful when they make a million dollars a year. For some others, they’re successful when they’re making enough to maintain their lifestyle and are working on something that they are passionate about.
Again, you don’t have to compare it with others. Just be yourself and search within yourself for what you really want.
When you know your own definition of success, you can then formulate a more practical plan to achieve it.
4. Align what you want with your life values
Don’t forget to also align your life vision and the success you want with your life values.
Most people have been influenced by society to think that being successful equals being right, but this is not always the case.
Think about it, if your life values are contradicting with what you want, you will never achieve them. Even if you did achieve what you want, you will get rid of them as soon as possible because your values don’t support them.
Just like if you think that money is evil or rich people are greedy, then deep down, subconsciously, you don’t want to get rich.
When you think that money isn’t important, why do you want to have more of it, right?
Imagine if you are someone who doesn’t like to play computer games. You will never bother what are the latest games releasing this month or you will never care if your computer is a gaming computer, right?
The same happens to your life vision and the success you want. When you don’t think the success you desire is important, you will never bother to achieve it.
Or when your life values are not in harmony with your vision, you will find it difficult as you move toward living your vision.
I strongly suggest you read this book to understand more about creating the relationship and aligning your mindset with the success you want:
==> Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
5. Find out the obstacles and roadblocks
After you have an idea of how your life vision is going to look like, it is time to make it more specific and actionable.
You then need to identify the obstacles and roadblocks that are preventing you from living them.
For instance, if your vision is to live an internet lifestyle and become an internet entrepreneur, ask yourself what is stopping you from doing this?
- Is it because you lack the technical skills to start a website?
- Is it because you don’t have a clear idea of what kind of online business to start?
- Or maybe you are already selling things online, but you have no idea how to take it to the next level?
You must find out what are the things that prevent you from moving forward.
Sometimes, you will discover that there are a lot of obstacles, but sometimes, there are only a few things you need to solve to get to the next stage.
When you know what is stopping you, you can then overcome it and make a step forward.
6. Reverse engineer your life vision
Now comes the most interesting part, which is to reverse engineer your life vision and work backward so that you can have a plan of what you need to do now in order to create the future you want.
Don’t just dream about what you want, you must also connect it to your current reality.
Most people have dreams, but they don’t turn their dreams into a specific and actionable plan so that they can work on them.
Don’t let that happen to you.
If you have no idea how to do this, join me at Goal Setting Formula and I will show you exactly how to do this.
Else, you can read this article below:
==> How to Turn Your Goals into Actionable Plans
Remember, you want to set yourself up to win. And to do so, you must give a set of specific instructions to your mind.
You want to tell your mind exactly what steps to take. The more specific you are, the better.
One reason most people procrastinate on their goals and dreams is that they lack clarity.
They don’t give their mind something specific to work on. And thus, they end up doing nothing.
7. What one step you can take now?
Finally, what is the one thing you can take right now to move forward to your life vision?
There is power in momentum. Once you have created your life vision plan, you want to maintain your momentum by taking at least one small step forward within 24 hours.
The more you do and the more consistent you are, the stronger your momentum.
The moment you stop taking action and make progress, your motivation will fade. Slowly and eventually, you will lose interest in your vision and give up on it.
Never let this happen to you. Be consistent.
You don’t need to take massive action steps, you just need to maintain your momentum by taking one small step at a time.
The key is to be consistent.
As long as you are moving forward, you will eventually reach your destination.
Create your life vision plan now
It is important that you start right now.
As I said above, don’t worry about creating the perfect life vision, the key is to create something to look forward to.
Rather than going through life unconsciously and following where the current takes you, you must take charge and become the captain of your life.
Start making decisions and taking actions to reach your destination.
You can’t leave things up to chances, because if you did, you will one day discover that you are just 10 feet away from the Niagara Falls. It will be too late by then.
But all these can be avoided if you make the right decisions and take conscious actions upstream.
This is why you must create your life vision plan now.
Great article.