Setting a Vision that Sticks

Big questions about yourself, your work, and your organization can be hard. 

I’m wondering if you know how to answer this one:

What would you love to see happen in your life and work in the next 3 months? How about 3 years?

We’re talking about vision.

This is a topic that’s been coming up A LOT in our community, as it always does at an inflection point like summer. 

And it’s a topic that got real for me last week, as I sat in my own strategy session with our marketing coach, landing on the vision for Interleap over the next 6-24 months, 3-5 years. 

The answers aren’t always easy or clear at first, but they eventually come when you spend enough time seeking them. When you stay on them.

Creating vision can be hard. It takes thought…and patience…and trial and error. It takes pausing and slowing down to pursue answers that don’t feel urgent.  

Last week during a visit to a client, someone made this important distinction – people are so busy on duty that they can’t (or won’t) focus on desire. 

Something to consider…

Maybe this is impacting your personal life, where you’re defaulting countless hours in a vision you haven’t even vetted. Or maybe it’s affecting your team or company because you’re so busy IN the work that you haven’t zoomed out to focus ON the work. Your people can’t follow through on your vision, because you haven’t really set one for yourself OR them…much less communicated it.

So how is lack of vision impacting the bottom line of your life, results, and relationships?

There can be serious implications for lack of personal and professional vision. 

On a personal level, it can mean defaulting to life according to someone else’s vision, or simply living a very small version of your own.

Organizationally, it can mean lack of movement, results, and respect from your team. If you’re not setting a vision, someone else may step up and do it for you, and I’m guessing THAT isn’t part of your vision. 

Maybe you’re not feeling the impact, yet. But trust me, it’s coming. 

The great news?

There’s a fix. 

AND, the fix involves most of what we find hard today: slowing down.

It’s uncomfortable when our typical pace is fast and reactive. But this MATTERS. And the payoff is worth it. Because what’s on the other side of the work is growth and confidence and evidence that you ARE the person you said you wanted to become. 

I know this journey. 

I’ve dreamed without structure and it didn’t work. I fought the resistance and lost. Until I won. I’ve seen the results in my life and business. And it’s WORTH every minute. 

Ready to step in?

Here are some tips for pushing through so that you can set a vision you want to live by:

• Set your list of questions. What do you want to know? Maybe…where you want to see change personally and professionally…in work and in health…in family. And what timeframes? There are endless prompts online to get you going. Simply start.
• Set journaling time. I get it – journaling can feel hard and slow. And it’s powerful because it creates clarity and space to play with the questions above. 
• Stay in draft form. Don’t overthink this. One of the reasons people don’t work on vision is because they think they have to have the perfect one. Land on what feels right and try it out. Otherwise, you’ll stay stuck.
• Set a deadline and make yourself accountable for it. Rarely do we finish when there’s no deadline or other person involved. Decide when you’ll review a draft and what’s at stake when you don’t. And TELL someone. We grow in community not isolation.
• Determine what it looks like when you’re succeeding. Paint done on this. How will you know when you are living this vision? When you can name it, you’ll know when you’ve achieved it and THAT is a compelling move toward motivation.

Here’s the thing. It’s summer – a slower pace with the space for big questions, if you’re willing to ask them. 

Do yourself a favor in this season and work on setting your vision!! 

Before you know it, the craziness of fall will be upon you and you’ll be glad you did.