Have you ever hopped in your car and started driving, but you didn’t know where you were going?
You get in, buckle your seatbelt, and shift into drive. You back out of the driveway and head down the road. Maybe you look out of the windows, watch the houses or trees or pastures pass you by. Maybe you observe your surroundings, or maybe you are so deep in your own thoughts, you don’t even notice your surroundings.
But where are you going?
What is the point of the journey?
You don’t know because your end point is undefined.
Radio host and writer Earl Nightingale said, “People with goals succeed because they know where they are going. It’s as simple as that.”
Living your life without a vision is the same as driving around aimlessly. It doesn’t mean it isn’t enjoyable. It doesn’t mean you won’t see any sites, but there is no purpose to your drive, no end in mind. No goal or finish line to get to.
Why you need a Vision For your Life
You feel dissatisfied with life. Unhappy, but you aren’t sure why. You’ve been daydreaming about a new job, a new mate, a new life. You compare your life to those around you and feel like you keep coming up short, but aren’t sure where the real problem is or what is holding you back. Maybe a new job, a raise, a promotion will get me on the right path.
How do you know a new job or a new mate or heck, even an entirely new life, will bring you satisfaction and make you as ridiculously, outrageously happy as you think everyone you are scrolling past on Instagram is? The grass is not always greener on the other side. This isn’t just a trite old saying. Its 100% true. A new job won’t necessarily be better. A raise won’t automatically make you content and happy in life.
You just don’t know that these steps will get you where you want to be. Without a vision to define your Dreams, to define what “Happy” is to you, you are making aimless decisions, swapping for the sake of swapping, picking a needle out of a haystack and hoping its made of gold and won’t prick you and make you bleed.
What is Vision and How does it Help?
Vision means the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom. Creating the vision for your life is defining your dream; its closing your eyes and imagining your future: who is in it, where you are, what you are doing.
Your personal vision gives your life PURPOSE. It gives you an objective, a target, something to achieve which makes hardship, disappointment, loss and life’s hurdles more bearable.
Your personal vision will help you define your VALUES. Who you are, what you are about, and what kind of life you intend to lead.
Your personal vision will be the foundation for your GOAL SETTING. You can start small and build up to larger goals, but ultimately, this vision will help you make important decisions along the way. Does this opportunity help me reach the dream for my life? If not, the answer should be no.
Your personal vision keeps you GROUNDED. The here and now are as important as the future, because what you are doing and what you are focused on TODAY will drive your future. Ground into something really important: your life goals and creating your legacy.
Your vision is everything. It is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the inflection point for decision making, the guidepost to your days and weeks, down to the books you read, the courses you take, the skills you want to develop. Your vision is the central piece that everything else in your life revolves around, keeping them perfectly balanced just as the sun keeps Earth in its orbit.
If you aren’t happy with where your life is at or where its headed, spend time focused on defining your vision. This one exercise could just change your life!