Your Vision Must Be Clear

Lack of clarity in your vision is a sure-fire way to struggle when working to achieve your goals. That vision is your map, essentially. If you don’t have a thorough understanding of your dream, you’re likely to get lost on your way to reaching it. A cloudy view of one’s purpose is one of the biggest contributors to goals that go astray. It’s easy to become distracted and to find yourself veering off course if you’re wishy-washy with regard to recognizing your ultimate plan. You’ll significantly increase your chances of fulfilling your dream when you are crystal clear on just what that dream entails.

Think about it this way. How much time did you spend planning out your last vacation? What about in researching the purchase of a family car? Even buying goods such as electronics and appliances usually receive a good amount of your time and attention. So doesn’t it make sense that investing time and planning into discovering and clarifying your dream should be a priority?

Establishing a clear vision helps to provide you with a sense of purpose and even aids in cementing your overall identity. You’ll have a greater sense of who you are when you feel confident in your understanding of where you want to go. This increased self-knowledge and full awareness of what you desire out of life will provide the motivation you need to stick with your goals.

In order to clarify your vision, I want you to ask yourself a few questions. Write the answers down in a journal or in a document on your computer. Getting them out in tangible form that you can see will benefit you in a number of ways. Putting the words to paper or screen reinforces the meaning of your words and helps to solidify them within your mind. It also aids you in making sense of things, as sometimes thoughts can easily become jumbled in your head. In addition, you can refer back to this vision journal in the future in order to check that you’re on-task with your progress and to make tweaks as needed.

The first question you should ask yourself is who it is that you want to be. Expand further on that to include the kind of traits you desire for yourself and take time to examine your most precious values. What’s important to you in life? How do you want to interact with the world? Notice the pattern in the adjectives and descriptive terms you use. These can provide great insight into cementing your overarching vision.

Next, consider what you want to do with your life. This doesn’t have to be focused exclusively on career aspects, though that certainly is an important part of your daily pursuits. This portion of your planning can also include your leisure activities, along with the way in which you approach each day. You’ll want to take the first part of this exercise into consideration and think about the values you identified. Use those to guide you in your search for what you want to do with yourself. For instance, if spontaneity and risk are a part of your core values, you might want to include living each day with the intention of learning something new or pursuing a novel experience. You can then develop goals that will push you to live this intention.

Finally, let’s turn your focus to what you’d like to have in your life. Not only are you going to explore the types of material things you’d like to have, but also take time to figure out the kinds of experiences you hope to live and what you’d like to achieve in a certain number of years or even before you die. Again, be sure to consider the values you identified in the first part of this exercise. Every aspect of your vision should be in alignment with your core values.

Creating your vision isn’t as overwhelming as it may seem. Taking some time to answer these questions will give you the roadmap you need to reach your ultimate destination of a fulfilling future. You’ll be able to develop and define your goals in a watch that matches your values and that will move you closer to your vision. Your goals will bring you more satisfaction, and you’ll feel motivated to keep attaining them. Start living your vision. Practice seeing your future self and begin acting as though your dreams are already a reality. You’ll soon start to see the process of moving toward that higher purpose become easier.