A big part of the self-education process is visioning. As you educate yourself, you’ll realise how important it is to have a vision for both your personal and business life. All successful people have one and it’s the next part of the building block to have a successful million-pound company.
Vision: According to the dictionary, vision means the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom. There are 2 forms of vision that I want you to concentrate on. One is your personal vision and the other is your company vision. This is what we mean when we say, start with the end game in mind. This will require some deep hard thinking. As humans we are not programmed to think, we look for the easy option or for somebody to tell us what to do and sometimes think. Thinking for yourself means that you’re in control of your own destiny.
Your vision will be the road map you will use to get to your end destination. Your own personal sat nav. Hence, why we start with end game in mind. In his book Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill speaks about auto suggestion for the visioning process. He says, auto suggestion is a term which applies to all suggestions and all self-administrated stimuli which reach one’s mind through the five senses.
Stated in another way, auto suggestion is self-suggestion. It’s the agency of communication between the part of the mind where conscious thought takes place, and that which serves as the seat of action for the sub conscious. The dominating thoughts that one permits to remain in the conscious mind, whether these thoughts be negative or positive, will reach and influence the subconscious mind through the law of auto suggestion.
No thought, whether it be negative or positive can enter the sub conscious mind without the aid of the principle of auto suggestion. Except for those thoughts picked up as flashes of insight or inspiration stated differently, all the senses are captured and processed by the conscious thinking mind and may be either passed on to the sub conscious mind or rejected at will.
The conscious mind serves therefore as an outer guard at the approach to the sub conscious. Nature has wired us human beings, so we have absolute control over the material which reaches our sub conscious mind. To start the visioning process, all you need is somewhere quiet, a pen, pad and a desire to see into your future. Try it, and then make it a daily routine, taking a minimum of 30 minutes out of your busy schedule to vision.
Visioning is day dreaming while documenting your thoughts. No one can tell you your thoughts. Everything you want, or need is inside of you. You must dig deep and draw it out by stretching your thinking. You’ll know if you have had a good visioning session because you will be exhausted from thinking. Note that your vision will not be done in one session, and don’t heap too much pressure on yourself to get it right first time. I remember when I wrote my visions, in total to perfect it took me around 4 weeks and that was visioning for 30 minutes a day. Again, for me I found that visioning on awakening first thing in a morning while everyone else was still a sleep worked best for me.
Personal Vision: Your personal vision should consist of personal aspirations that can be measured by goal setting. By using goals, you can monitor the journey by hitting milestones to make sure you’re on track. Include family and friends as well, after all I’m pretty sure you’re not looking for better life just for yourself. Share your vision with whom it will affect. This will help people close to you understand why you may be working long hours or sacrificing something that doesn’t align with what you want to achieve.
Company Vision: Your company vision should consist of the aspiration of what you want your company to achieve and be measured by goal setting. Once you have a company vision, sharing it with your staff is equally important. They are on the journey with you and you need to tell them where they are heading. This is a common mistake some business owners make. You won’t find the average business owner with a company vision. They don’t even know what one is, they are just riding their luck, hoping things will work out.
Our thinking is only as good as the questions we are prepared to ask ourselves. So here are a few questions to get the juices flowing:
What’s your purpose in life?
How do you want to be remembered?
How can you effect the lives of others for the good?
How much money do I require to reach financial freedom?
What are your personal and business goals?
What is your legacy?
Asking and answering questions like this will help you think into what you really want from life, and once you have the answers, you then have a plan and a road map for your life. A vision without execution is pointless. You need to have a burning desire to want to achieve what you have written. Whatever your vision looks like, make sure it excites you to get up in a morning and want to go to work on it.
Goal setting is a way of measuring and keeping track of your vision. All your goals should be aligned with your vision. Goals should be a mixture of both short and long-term goals. Even throw in some BEHAGS – big hairy audacious goals.
A vision without execution is pointless
I personally have a strategy session once a year in December. I book a conference/meeting room at a local hotel. I make sure the room is nice and quiet without any distractions. I turn off my phone and don’t let anything or anyone distract me for the full day. I request a flip chart, paper and plenty of ink. Visualise the year ahead. This is something I certainly didn’t know when I started my first business. Self-education has taught me that it’s now one of the most important days of the year for me and I know it can be for you too.
In your strategy session you must asking questions like:
What do you want your company to achieve in year one?
What turnover do you want?
What staff/resources do you need and when do you need them by?
How many customers do you need in year one?
Think hard, stay focused and I’ll guarantee you that when you leave that room after 8 hours, you’ll have clarity on the goals and visions for your business that’ll serve you for the next 12 months. If you can answer questions like this, then you can use the information to set your goals. A strategy session should be an annual event where you can think into setting the years’ goals.
Once you have the plan, it’s important to share it with anyone who’s to be involved in the business. Call a meeting. Explain how and what your visions and goals are for the business over the first 12 months. Make them feel part of it. Where do they fit in? Make sure they are on board, so the whole company is pulling in the same direction. Finally put up a goal board in the office and add each goal to the board so everyone can see it. Once a goal is achieved, mark them off and throughout the year the whole company can see the progression.
So, we have covered some of the founder details required to build a successful business and we’re not even at the stage where it’s time to open the doors for business. This won’t be long in the making but we do have other areas we need to cover before we do.
To be continued……
