Using Visioning to clarify where you want to go

My work is very fulfilling. I coach conscientious, responsible, growth-oriented leaders on their personal and team performance. They see the challenges as opportunities. I’m fortunate to be around such people much of time. They have to rub off on me at some stage, right?! Not quite. Being like that is a choice. Anyone can do it. You can make a choice right now. Allow me to borrow from John Maxwell and ask you the following question:

Are you well-intentioned or intentional?

If you were a well-intentioned person, then you’d mean well, but you’d rarely follow through on your commitments to yourself. You’d look outside of yourself for motivation for change. You’d need an event like a seminar, book or reading of an article like this to initiate change, but soon after your motivation would wane.

As a Renegade, you’re more likely to be intentional. You initiate change because you’re intrinsically motivated to improve and succeed. You create and maintain momentum because you commit to a process (not just an event) such as this:

  1. You know how you will measure and track progress before you take action.
  2. You review progress periodically and objectively.
  3. You check if you’re on track, tweaking your course and/or refining your goal.
  4. You repeat the process. All the time, you’re raising your awareness of your own performance. You’re improving. You’re growing.

Efficient vs Effective

As an intentional person, you’re more efficient over the short term than the average person. But there’s no point in being good at doing the wrong things. You need to be intentional about your long-term success too. This ensures you’re doing the right things, being effective.

In order to sustain your effectiveness, you need certain foundations to be in place.

You’ll be thinking in a more resourceful and empowered way. You’ll be tapping into the mind, success and confidence of your future self.

Get your starting place right

You can’t get from A to B if you don’t know where A is first. If A represents your Current Reality, then ask yourself the following:

  1. Where are you today in terms of life and career?
  2. What’s right for you? What’s not?
  3. What do you want to do more of, less of, or keep the same?
  4. Peeling back a layer or two, consider what you did to create the best and worst of your current reality.

Now that you’re equipped with your stronger sense of self, you can more confidently articulate where you’d rather be instead. Moreover, you’ll know what needs to change in you, for things to change for you.

Know where you want to end up

Sounds obvious, but few people have a clear vision of their ideal future. Many have vague ideas, but that simply doesn’t suffice, in my view. Our minds see in pictures. Without an ideal image of personal success, our subconscious will work against our intentions instead of with them. It will focus on fears, doubts and obstacles that will undoubtedly keep the handbrake on your progress. It will protect the status quo. It is wired to do so.

So why would you waste your time, life and talent working randomly instead of intentionally?

This doesn’t mean you remove spontaneity from your life. It just means you go after the things that excite you most. It’s what living is all about!

How do you create a clear vision?

There are many valuable tools within the Travectio platform to help you, such as the Vision Clarity Exercise. I’ve outlined how I go about mine for you here:

  • Begin with the end in mind. What year is your Vision set in?
  • Break it down into key areas. You can use a Wheel of Life Exercise to achieve this. It’s up to you, maybe you want to narrow it down to Family Life, Work Life, Health & Fitness.
  • Work back in Milestones. For example, my Vision is set for 2023. So I am working to Milestones in 2021, 2020, and 2019. Decide what feels best for you.
  • What needs to happen at each milestone to make the next a reality?

Some useful things to consider:

Go into detail. If this is going to be your inspiration, then we need to get crystal clear on key matters. Maybe ask yourself some of these questions to help tease out more clarity about your ideal world: What is happening? What do you see/hear/say/feel? Who is there? What does your schedule look like? What are you proud of having achieved? Where are you spending your time? How do you relax? What physical shape are you in? How will you continue to drive this happiness moving forward?

This is your ideal day, include anything you like. The more you own this and the more personal it is, the greater the sense of purpose you will have and the greater your motivation will be.

Your vision will keep you focused throughout the inevitable low points of your journey.

How it works:

  • Your subconscious mind CANNOT decipher between images that you physically see and interpret from the outside world (using your eyes), from the images you choose to consciously create.
  • When you repeatedly impress your consciously chosen images upon your subconscious, you give it a positive focal point for its energy. Over time, you modify your beliefs, actions and behaviours to be aligned with your vision of success.

What can you do next?

This is just scratching the surface really. The real magic occurs through consistent and regular investment in the process. Start the exercise with a pen and paper. See how that goes first. If you don’t get any traction, try dictating it into your phone. Or any other way you feel will work for you. Just give it a whirl. You’ve nothing to lose, whilst you’ve so much to gain.

In my next article, I’ll help you work back from your vision in milestones. That way, you identify the challenges in reverse order. You consider how you might navigate them. You’ll be thinking in a more resourceful and empowered way. You’ll be tapping into the mind, success and confidence of your future self. You’ll be thinking at a different level.

That’s what’s going to lead to vastly improved performance and results.