Personal Growth Demystified: The Vision
This is just a part of the series of blog posts demystifying personal growth. I suggest you to read the previous one if you didn’t already. Link to the start of the series: Personal Growth Demystified Series.
Let’s take a peek into some of the most inspiring vision statements out there:
- Disney: To make people happy.
- Nike: Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. *If you have a body, you are an athlete.
- Microsoft (at its founding): A computer on every desk and in every home.
- Amazon: To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online.
As you can see, they are inspirational. They motivate. In the same manner, ideas behind can be transferred and applied on the personal level. How? That’s something you will hopefully know after reading this post.
Why should I care?
Okay! Ready? Let’s see why this might be important to you.
Newton’s first law of inertia states that every object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled to change its state by the action of an external force.
We’re often in a state of rest and we usually change our state as a reaction to the external stimulus. Many of us enjoy the ease of the comfort zone. Much more will and force is needed for a change than to remain at rest.
Taking this into account, many of us never fulfill true potential which we all possess.
Even when we’re willing to change something, we’re not sure about the direction. We’re missing the big picture.
Most of us don’t even dream and of those that do dream just a few have courage to fight for and pursue the dreams. We often miss motivation.
If you are being tired of living this way …
If you want to take the control over your life …
If you want to live you dreams … stay with me to the end where we will remove the blindfold and see what has always been with us.
I see vision as the first building block of personal growth, as important and irreplaceable ingredient. Without vision we can’t see — No, I am not talking about the vision that comes from your eyes and brain :)
The Vision will bring us some light into darkness.
It will show us the way!
Step closer: Be responsible
Even before we begin, we must pass the test.
Vision is not something that allows cowardice. Vision is unfamiliar with irresponsibility and fear. No matter what kind of dream we have, we won’t achieve it unless we take the responsibility. We must be in the full responsibility of our life. We, today, are the product of our decisions in the past. Also the things that were not under our control. But we should not spend any energy on those. Taking responsibility is a must and not an easy thing to do. There won’t be guilt transference anymore. Maybe that sounds terrifying but that’s the only way to become the winner.
The first step to the Vision is taking the full responsibility.
If we want to live big we need to dream big
Imagination is a powerful thing. We are having either fear of failure or fear of success (not sure what we’re going to do when we succeed or not able to manage and handle the pressure). Fear is a product of imagination and it still looks very real to us.
Why don’t we then use imagination for something that benefits us? Let’s use our imagination to project our life the way we want!
We’ll use imagination to create the vision of our life, the life that we deserve.
When we talk about the vision of our life, that closely resonates to the purpose that we have on this planet. It can sound as a fairy tale, I know. But give it a chance. Everything goes around building beliefs that support us and our needs. This can be one of them. Thinking about the future is all about belief anyway.
Although we talk about the life vision, we can project and live the vision of each goal that we’re walking to.
Vision is something internal. That comes from within us. That is something completely ours, something that can give us motivation whenever we want, something that we deeply believe in. That is why we need to be honest with ourselves when defining our vision.
Okay! Now, something concrete! Steps that helped me find my vision.
Clear your space, try not to get interrupted and concentrate.
Imagine you’re quite old now, let’s say you’re in 80’s, 90’s … You lived your life the way you wanted. Imagine as many details as possible, details will connect you with that moment every other time when you need it. Maybe you’re in a green garden with beautiful flowers and butterflies painted in all kinds of colors and shades. Or you’re in a room surrounded by bookshelves. Or in your house yard where you peacefully observe grandchildren running around and playing. Maybe there is some dog or cat? Who else? I won’t suggest you, those are just examples. Take some time, enjoy your imagination. Be honest with what you want. Don’t think, don’t calculate — just share what comes.
Now that you have some picture in front of you that strongly resonates to your feelings. Imagine that you have four people in front of you.
This is not a strict number nor list of roles. You should pick your roles, you should define them, roles that are important to you. Everything depends on your inner feelings and desires. For example:
Family (this can be anyone from your family, wife, son/daughter, brother/sister..)
Friend (your best friend maybe, one that was always with you?)
Colleague (a colleague from your job, person that represents a view on your career)
Community (someone that represents a community, can be a church representative)
For each role that you have, describe honestly how it sees you at that moment. What kind of person were you in their context? How does your best friend sees you? What priorities did you have? Were you always with you family? Are you a father, what kind of father were you? What kind of brother? What did you do to help, what did you give to your community? …
Take your time. Sum up your thoughts. Write them. Be open and honest.
This approach helped me a lot when I was creating my life vision. I believe it can help you too. Be patient.
Now, when you have everything in front of you. Everything written not by your hand nor seen by your eyes but with your soul. You’re maybe wondering what this vision will give you?
If you’ve been honest with yourself, if reading these words makes you happy and describes what happiness looks like to you. That vision paints all your uniqueness and pureness. Every time when you feel stuck and desperate, vision will be there to motivate you. The force that will push you forward. The reason of your fight. The ultimate goal that you desire and you willingly pursue.
There are plenty of ways you can cherish your vision. You can make some collage with some moments from the vision. You can paint it. You can make a vision board and hang it on some wall which you could revisit every day, motivate yourself each morning. Make the vision statement out of it as we mentioned at the beginning? Write a song? There are plenty of other ways, be creative :)
This can also be done with your goals. Each goal can be visualized. By connecting your mind to it, you’ll notice each thing that brings you closer to it.
I made a mistake by purpose before when I said we’re defining the life vision. The life vision is something that is already here. As you saw it’s something within us and we just took some time to reveal it. The problem was that we expected to see it with our eyes but the vision is not shown to eyes but to the soul.
Conclusion
It’s always easier to give up, to surrender. More will and strength is required to fight your fear, to fight for what you deserve. Don’t be just an observer of your life. Take the full responsibility and fight for chances, don’t wait for them.
Every creation has two phases. First, when we create mentally and the second one, when we materialize it.
Put your critic aside for a moment and dream. Fill and describe!
It will give you all the strength and motivation you’ll need. And finally it will give you some meaning and purpose that will clearly guide you through the storms of life.
Thanks for staying with me to the end :)
In the next one we’re going to get closer to the specifics and talk about goals. One of my favorite topics.
