We discussed about vision exercises in great detail in previous posts. Part 1 of creating vision using vision exercises presented two exercises and part two presented four more vision exercises. While these exercises are very powerful and very effective each of them require some time to be spent on them. In this post we present a shorter and quicker way to discover your vision – by asking questions. We discussed how to create vision and why should you have a vision and now we present 7 powerful questions that will help you to create your personal vision.

Asking Questions

Asking questions is a thought-provoking way to solve problems of life. As simple as it may seem but questions have a deep relation with problem solving. To get answers you do need to ask questions. Here, we apply the same principle - asking questions to get a vision for our life. But before you start remember the 4 requirements to start a vision exercise. Below are the 7 questions that will help you discover your vision.

1. What contributions do you want to have made to the people around you – to your family, friends, work area, community?
2. What character would you want your family, friends, co-workers to have seen in you?
3. What change would you want to have brought into your community that would be remembered by generations to come?
4. On your last day, when you walk out of the office, what change would you want to have made in the work and people you worked with?
5. What would you want your great grandchildren and their children to know about you that makes them proud?
6. What are some things in your life today that you wish were different? How would you create that difference? What would your perfect life look like?
7. What are the different roles you have in your life (Mother, daughter, sister, project manager etc.)? What changes do you want to bring in these roles?

These are the 7+ questions that have a potential of changing the way you look at your life, transforming your life and bringing success.

Once you have your vision…

Once you have discovered your vision the next step as we have discussed number of times in past is to create a compelling vision statement. Once vision statement is created the next thing is to identify your core values.

What do you think?

What do you think about this approach? Which approach do you like better exercises or questions? Tell us in the comments section below.

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Photo Courtesy Leo Reynolds

Further Reading -

1. 3 Ingredients of Success - Vision, Core Values and Mission Statement
2. How to Create a Compelling Vision and Successful Vision Statement
3. 5 Simple Tips to Powerful and Effective Vision and Vision Statements
4. Creating Vision Statements with Vision Exercises
5. Creating Vision Statements with Vision Exercises – Part 2

(Continue Reading)

Vision exercises, as we mentioned in the earlier post, are great tools for creating your vision. Part 1 of this article discussed the four requirements to use vision  exercises and two vision exercises. This post present four more vision exercises for discovering your personal vision. Before continuing further it is recommended that you read how to start creating vision and vision statements.

Before you Begin

Again, as in the previous post, do the required preparation and get the four important things before you start the vision exercises:

1. A Quiet Place
2. 15 minutes for each exercise
3. Calm mind
4. Writing Instruments

If you wish to learn more about these four things and have not read the previous post, please read creating vision statement with vision exercises part 1. Let’s get straight to some more vision exercises.

Vision Exercise 3 – Can’t live without and want to get rid of

This exercise is a little different from the first two exercises mentioned in the previous post. This vision exercise is very simple and straightforward.

To start this exercise,  draw a vertical line dividing the piece of paper (or its electronic equivalent) into two parts. Label left side as “Can’t Live Withouts” and the right side as “Want to Get Rid ofs”, and start thinking. Write all the things you can not live without on the left side. Think about what are the essential things you do on a day-to-day basis for your survival. Now think about those things that you would like to get rid of. Start writing them on the right side. After you are done, you would have a list of things you like in your life and would like to continue doing them and another list of things you want to get rid of from your life. Use these two lists to create your vision, the “can’t live without “ list would tell you what are the things that you should consider to include in your vision and “get rid of “ list would give a quick idea of the non-essential things that should be taken off your life to attain your vision.

While this exercise is straightforward, I feel it is a little shallower than the exercises mentioned previously. The strength of this exercise is that it will give you a good idea of what you want and what you don’t in your life. Once you identify the vision, remember to formulate the vision statement and use the simple tips to make it compelling and powerful.

Vision Exercise 4 – Genie exercise

For those who don’t know Genie is a fictional invisible spirit who has special powers to grant any wish of his master. If you have watched the cartoon movie Aladdin, you know what I am talking about. This exercise uses Genie as the medium to discover your vision. Again, before moving ahead keep in mind the four requirements mentioned above.

Imagine this - one weekend you were cleaning your closet and sorting the stuff in it. While you were throwing stuff out of your closet, you found a magic lamp and you rubbed the lamp and a genie appeared. And just like in the movie, the genie asks for your wish. The twist here is that you can ask for only three wishes. Think about this for a moment. What will be the three wishes – one about you, one about your family and/or friends, third for your community . What would be the wishes you would ask the genie? What change would you like to bring in these three areas of your life?

This exercise uses drama and creativity to create the ambience and help create your vision in a fun way.

Vision Exercise 5 – The Retirement Day

Exercise number 5 on this list is related to your work area, though it can be modified to cover broader spectrum of life.

Imagine that you have worked for 34 years in several business areas and after so many years of work, the day has come when you retire. That day is today. You are retiring today. As you walk out of your office and look behind at the main entrance door, you remember all those 34 years. You remember all the jobs you have had, all the employees you supervised and the bosses you reported to. You recall the major projects you worked on that changed your career. What would you like to have achieved in all the years you worked? What contributions would you like to have made to your job, your direct reports, your boss and your projects? What character do you want your colleagues to have seen in you?

This is similar to “With End in Mind” exercise discussed in part 1 but focuses specifically on work area. To make this exercise more comprehensive, you can add any other area of life.

Vision Exercise 6 – What is Your Legacy

Legacy is defined by Merriam Webster as something that is received from an ancestor. In the context of this exercise, legacy would be your name, your image and your personal brand.

Your name and the your reputation is something you earn as you live your life. People inherit the legacy of their parents, grandparents and great grandparents. It is the choices you make and your karma that brings you name and sketches your image. But your children, grandchildren and so on are stuck with that image, that brand – what you earned. Think about the impact your deeds and choices and decisions would make on your coming generations. What legacy would you like to have left for your grandchildren and great grandchildren? What would you want your grandchildren to be proud of? What are the areas you want to leave your legacy in? How do you want your children to look at you and your achievements?

Take a moment and answer these questions. The Legacy exercise is very powerful and conveys the message loud and clear – if you want your grandchildren to be proud of you, do something that makes real positive difference in their life.

The Next Step

These six exercises are great way to discover your vision and values. However, don’t stop just yet. Once you discover your vision the important thing is to document it some place safe by creating your personal vision statement. Remember the simple tips to make your vision statement powerful and compelling. Once you have a vision statement, then find out your core values and develop your mission statement to create the three ingredients required for recipe of success.

Back to you

Now its your turn again. Tell us which exercise did you like the best? Did these work for you? Share your favorite exercise with us or just tell us how you liked this post in the comments below.

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Photo Courtesy o0bsessed

Further Reading

1. Creating Vision Statements with Vision Exercises
2. 5 Simple Tips to Powerful and Effective Vision and Vision Statements
3. Start Creating A Vision to Transform Your Life
4. How to Create a Compelling Vision and Successful Vision Statement

(Continue Reading)

Vision exercises are simple and interactive way to create your personal vision. Vision exercises are fun and can help you get focused. These exercises provoke some thoughts and help you understand yourself, your vision and your values in a more comprehensive way. This article presents two vision exercises in detail that will help you discover your vision. Once vision is discovered and the mental image is sketched, transfer this image to paper by using vision statements.

Vision Exercises

You can use any one of these exercises for identifying your personal vision. I would recommend reading all the exercises and picking the best one you like and trying that out. While all these exercises will help you create your personal vision, each one of them is a little different than others. Each exercise has its own strength and there are some aspects missing in some of them. So, if you have got some time on hand, try all of these exercises and consolidate the result to make your vision powerful and effective. 

Required Preparation

Before jumping to the exercise there are several things that should be kept in mind to get the most out of these exercises. Having all the required items to start with will ease the process and benefit you the most. Here are the four important things required for these vision exercises:

1. A Quiet Place – Find a quiet place where you are not disturbed for until the exercise is complete. This will help you concentrate and eliminate the distractions.
2. 15 minutes – Each of these exercises will take about 15 minutes to complete.
3. Calm mind – I believe a calm mind is the most important asset needed for this exercise. It will help you concentrate during the exercise and help you generate ideas. Creating a time slot on your schedule will mentally prepare you for the exercise.
4. Writing Instruments – The final thing you will need is writing instruments – pen and paper or a computer. Anything where you can take notes and organize them later will work.

Vision Exercise 1 – With the end in mind

Mr... Stephen Covey presents an exercise to identify your personal vision and values in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Below is the gist of the exercise mentioned in the book –

“Imagine you are dead and are looking down at your funeral from the heaven. Four speakers are scheduled to speak about you at this service. First person to speak is someone from your family, the second person is one of your friends, the third person is some you work with and the fourth speaker is from the community. Think about for a moment, what would you like these speakers from four different areas of your life – family, friendship, work and community, to speak about? What would you like to have contributed to these areas? What character would you want these four people to have seen in you? In what manner do want to have affected their life?”

Take few minutes, think about these questions and write the answers. Keep fine tuning the answers and finalize them to form a vision statements. While you formulate your thoughts into vision and finalize into vision statements, apply the simple tips for writing good vision statements.

Vision Exercise 2 – Your Superb Lifetime

This exercise takes a different approach to discovering your vision. This vision exercise helps to identify your vision but not by asking what would you want people to say about you rather this exercise asks vision questions to someone else – you. Well lets get right to the exercise.

“If you had all the resources and power and wanted to create a perfect life, a flawless day, an exciting week and a superb lifetime, what would it look like? Imagine the life unfolding exactly as you want, what would you want it to look like?

Ask yourself these questions: What is different in your life? Who are the people with you? How are their characters? How much money do you earn and how do you earn that? What is your daily schedule? What do you do for enjoyment? Are you doing community service? If yes, what kind of community service is it?

Again, before continuing ahead, think about  these questions and try to answer them. Once you do have answers to these question, write them down and finalize the vision statement and use the simple tips to make it better.

This exercise touches upon several different areas of life by asking questions to yourself and what you want to do rather than what you want other people to think about you.

After you are done…

After you have completed these two exercises, created a vision statement and applied the simple tips, next step is to identify your values and build your personal mission statement. We will talk about personal values and mission statement here in coming weeks.

Now to my favorite part, comments and questions from the readers. Which was a better exercise for you? What did you like about it? Was it pretty easy to visualize the scene in both cases? Were you able to answer the questions easily? Tell us about that in the comment section below.

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Further Reading

1. 5 Simple Tips to Powerful and Effective Vision and Vision Statements
2. How to Create a Compelling Vision and Successful Vision Statement
3. 3 Ingredients of Success - Vision, Core Values and Mission Statement
4. Creating Vision Statements with Vision Exercises – Part 2
5. Personal Vision is Useless Without a Good Ladder 

(Continue Reading)

Dr. Martin Luther King was one of the people of modern world who made a huge impact on mankind. He had a dream – a dream of equality, a dream that all people would be equal, that people will not be judged by the color of their skin. He dreamed of a world where everyone will be truly free. Dr. King’s dream is now a reality. He was successful because he understood the need of a clear vision and a strong and compelling vision statement. These two things were the fundamental requirement for his success.

In this post, we present excerpts from Dr. King’s vision. It was his vision and the other imperative ingredients that brought success to Dr. King. Great leaders like him know the importance of vision and develop a clear vision.

Dr. King’s Vision

Below are the paragraphs from his “I have a Dream” speech, which talk about his vision.

“…I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…."
"…I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character…."
"…I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood…"
"….we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day…"

You Can Do It

Dr. Martin Luther King’s clear vision, his values and mission contributed to his success. For that matter, if you think look at the 9 individuals who made a strong impact on mankind, they all had defined the three ingredients – vision, value and mission. These three ingredients of success give you a clear direction for your life. For ensuring that you are on the right path, start creating your vision, identify your core values and build a mission statement.

What would you add?

Have you started creating a vision? What would you add in this post? Do you have a story about Dr. King? Or perhaps you know something that our readers would really love to read? Post in the comments below.

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Photo courtesy Wikipedia

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A compelling vision inspires you when you are low, guides you when you are feel lost and provides meaning to your tasks at hand. An effective vision statement strengthens and solidifies the vision. So what makes a vision and vision statement powerful and effective? We discussed why you need a vision, started creating a vision and described how to create a compelling vision. In this post, we present few tips to make your vision and vision statement powerful and effective.

 

The Five Tips

A stronger vision leads to a better vision statement. A vision is a mental image of a success and vision statement is that mental thought on paper. Vision statement not only captures the mental image of success, it is also a document that can be referred when you want to check the direction you are heading to and to find out whether that direction takes you closer to your vision or farther away. It is for this reason that it is absolutely critical to have a powerful and effective vision statement. Below are some tips that will help you to develop a powerful and effective vision and vision statements.

1. Discover Completely – Before you sit down and start framing your vision statement, it is important that you discover your vision completely. You can create vision by completing the vision exercises. Vision exercises help you to discover your vision in a simple way.
2. State Clearly – Another important tip to create a effective vision statement is to state the vision clearly. Any confusion or ambiguity should be eliminated from the vision statement. Remember, vision statement is the document that you will refer in future and if this document has any ambiguity, it will lead to confusion and chaos. Therefore, state your vision as clearly as you can.
3. Use Positive Language – Positive Language creates wonders. When you phrase the vision statement, use positive language. This will help you to create a motivating vision that inspires you to move forward.
4. Make it Emotional – Vision is a mental image. In other words, its your dream. And a dream needs to have some emotion in it. Think about how you would feel when you achieve your vision or how would those who are touched by this vision think when you accomplish this vision. Put an emotional aspect to your vision and lay it down clearly in the vision statement. 
5. Revise Regularly – Once the vision statement is finalized, don’t just let it sit in a cabinet or some folder on your hard drive. Refer it regularly. Revise the vision and modify the vision statement when you think your vision has changed. Every month when you plan your monthly to dos, refer to the vision statement to see if your “to dos” are inline with your vision. If you see a lot of “to dos” going in a different direction, its time for a

These are just few tips that will make your vision and vision statement more effective. A good vision is the first step to being successful. I am sure you might have some more tips to add to this, please add them in the comments below.

 

How to make it better?

Do you have any tips that can make vision and vision statements better? What would you suggest would affect your vision the most? Which of these have you used and found effective? Tell us how you like this article in the comments section.

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Related Posts

1. 3 Ingredients of Success - Vision, Core Values and Mission Statement
2. Start Creating A Vision to Transform Your Life
3. How to Create a Compelling Vision and Successful Vision Statement
4. Why you need a Vision for Your Life?
5. How Do You Change the World?

(Continue Reading)

Success starts with a good vision and creating a vision is not simple. Last week we started creating your vision, in this post we will talk about steps for creating a compelling vision and successful vision statement. This four-step approach is simple and logical and enables you to create your vision and vision statement. This post also presents you two most common ways to create your vision.

The first of the three ingredients of success is vision.  Vision is the blue  dot. It is the destination on the map where we would like to reach. A compelling vision with a powerful vision statement can inject enthusiasm and energy in your life. Vision can also be a source of motivation if used effectively. This guiding light can show you which way the tunnel opens.

Now that you know why you need a vision, lets talk about vision statement. While it is good to have a vision, it is equally important to put the vision in words to bring more clarity to your thoughts. A well-worded vision statement is a great resource to go to, when you feel lost and don’t have a clue where to go.

 

Four Steps to Compelling Vision

Creating a vision and vision statement is a four step process. All these four steps are equally important for being successful in this process. Before you start reading further make sure you have following items with you:

• About 15 minutes
• A quiet room
• Paper
• Pen (Pen and Paper is not required if using a computer :) )

Once you have the items mentioned above, we are ready to roll. Lets look at these steps.

1. Visualize Success

The first step to creating your vision is to visualizing what success looks like in future to you. Stop reading this post here and take few minutes to think about this. What does success look like in future? What are the accomplishments you would like to have achieved by this future time? What contributions would you like to have made by this future time? Think about the answers to these questions before you continue. STOP and think about this. Given it a thought? Yes? Okay, so by now you should have an idea what success it? What does it look like? Can you describe it to yourself? If you did not realize, you just created your vision in your mind.

2. Put it in words

Rethink about that picture you had in your mind in step 1. What does success look like? Take your writing tools and draft how you would describe your mental image. While you do that, use positive words and write in present tense. Once you have a rough draft, fair it as much as you can and then leave it. Revisit it in couple of hours and finalize it. And with this step, your vision statement is created.

3. Use them

Creating vision and developing a vision statement is one thing, it is a totally different thing to use it and follow up with the next steps. After creating vision and vision statement, it is important to use them regularly to set your goals and measure your progress is necessary. At the same time, regular check should be placed so that you can decide whether you are moving towards your vision or away from it.

4. Revise them

Once you have put regular checks in place and start monitoring your progress, it is also important to review the vision and ask yourself, “is this vision still valid? is this something I still want or have my priorities changed?” If the answer to any of the question is yes, it is time to go to step 1 and revise the vision. How frequently you should revise? Well there are lot of theories out there, but I feel as frequently as you can, however, if you want a number I would say once a month should be a good balance. So that you don’t do it too frequently and neither do you wait too long to find out that your ladder has been leaning against the wrong wall.

 

Story Doesn’t End Here

This four-step process presented above is a summary of how to develop a vision and how to create a compelling vision statement. There are lot of resources on the web that give more details about how to develop vision and create a vision statement. Look out for that post in future. There are two most popular ways to create vision that I came across.

1. Vision Exercises
2. Vision Questions

I’ll leave you with this now, look out for vision exercises and vision questions in near future. Do you have any tips for creating vision and developing a vision statement? Have you tried developing your vision? What were the challenges you faced? Tell us in the comments below.

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What is common between Walt Disney and Microsoft? Yes, they both define success in their own ways. Walt Disney created Mickey and Mini and Donald and Disney Land, Microsoft is the top software company and more than 80% of the companies running Windows. Both were extremely successful and both knew the secret of success.

The secret of being successful is simple. You should define what is success to you and work towards it. But before doing that, you should know what will success look like in future. Vision is the blue dot, one of your destinations in the journey of life. If you would like to be in a better position after one year, than where you are today, the first thing you need is a vision. So what is a vision and how do you develop it?

 

Vision Explained

Vision is what you want to be in future or where you see yourself in the coming years. Usually, it is high level, generic and long term mental image of an outcome, which drives you and your actions. For example, Microsoft's vision in early days - "a PC on every desk and in every home". Now with that in mind the company worked to make it come true. Similarly, for a boxer that might be winning a challenging tournament and the boxer may start his training to achieve his/her vision. For a writer that might be writing a book that everyone in this world can read and then s/he makes the strategy accordingly.

 

The Vision Statement

Once you have a vision for your future and what you want it to look like, the next thing you need is to formulate your vision in words. You might have lot of ideas and thoughts about how your future should be, putting it into words makes a lot of difference. This is where vision statement comes in

If vision is a mental picture of success, vision statement is the way that mental picture is shown. A vision statement is a lively description of your mental image that defines your desired outcome. The more detailed this description, the better it is for you to achieve it. Vision statements should be clear, motivating and describe what you want to achieve in future.

 

Get Started

While developing a vision and a vision statement can be a long and rigorous process for some, it is always best to start simple. The first step to success is defining what is success. Until the next post, give this some thought. Think what you want to be 10, 20 or even 30 years down the line. What would you like to achieve in this life? May be you want to be a great banker, or may be the biggest business tycoon. May be you want to be a great speaker or may be a comedian, whatever it is think about it. Give it some thought in next few days and next post we will talk about how to formulate a good vision statement.

(Update: Read the next article about How to Create a Compelling Vision and Successful Vision Statement and Simple Tips to Powerful and Effective Vision and Vision Statements)

Once you have given some thought, tell us in the comments section, how was the experience? How did you get started with forming your vision? How easy was it for you? Tell us about your experience in comments below.

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Photo Courtesy : kevinthoule

Further Reading:

1. How to Create a Compelling Vision and Successful Vision Statement
2. 5 Simple Tips to Powerful and Effective Vision and Vision Statements
3. Creating Vision Statements with Vision Exercises
4. Creating Vision Statements with Vision Exercises – Part 2
5. Create Your Personal Vision Series

(Continue Reading)

Do you want to be successful? Yes? I believe that is what anyone would answer. But have you ever thought how do you become successful? What is a secret for being successful? What does success look like for you? Have you given a thought how you would achieve it?

A lot of people never take time to give a thought to these questions. Everyone wants  to be successful but not many can define what success is for them. Out of those who do know their definition of success, fewer think about developing a plan for success strategically. Remember the old saying “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail”?

Anyone thinking about being successful needs to develop a success plan – a clear plan for being successful. The recipe of success plan should start with three imperative factors - vision, core values and mission statement. Without these three ingredients, the recipe won’t taste as it should. Just like pizza needs bread, toppings and marinara sauce, to be successful it is important to have the three ingredients.

 

Three Ingredients of Success Plan

The three success secrets – vision, core values and mission statement – help to define the blue dot, how you will get to the blue dot and what principles you would live to get there. Let’s look at these three ingredients.

1. Having a Vision

Vision is the most important ingredient for recipe of success. We discussed why vision is important. Having vision is the first quality you need to be successful, because, if you don't know where you want to go, it does not matter where you are going. If you haven’t thought about your personal vision, start creating a vision.

2. Understanding Your Core Values

Once you know what you want from life, it is important to recognize what values are important to you and what you should cultivate to reach fulfill your vision. These core values define what you believe in and what you consider right thing to do. Core values guide you and help you to stay on the right path.

3. Developing a Mission Statement

Before starting to develop a mission statement, you should have a vision and understand your core values. After defining what success looks like for you and identifying your ideals it is time to start creating a mission statement. Vision is usually a very long term desired outcome, whereas mission statement is for shorter term. Understand what a mission statement is and how to develop a mission statement.

 

Getting Closer to Success

These three success factors are a start of a journey, the first leap towards the destination. Having a vision, understanding your core values and developing a mission statement is just a start. Obviously this should be accompanied by action too. Planning does not substitute execution, action is necessary to succeed. However, these three ingredients do bring you closer to success. A good plan forms the basis for effective and efficient execution.

 

What’s Your Plan

Lets hear from you now. Do you have a plan for success? How did you develop the plan? What approach did you use? Tell us about your experience in the comment section.

Photo courtesy: Sir Mevs

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Further Reading:

1. How to Create a Compelling Vision and Successful Vision Statement
2. How to Discover Your Personal Values in Less Than 10 minutes
3. Creating Personal Mission Statements to Define the Path to Success
4. 5 Simple Tips to Powerful and Effective Vision and Vision Statements
5. Benjamin Franklin’s Success by Mission Statement
6. 6 Success Factors (or Rules of Success) from Arnold Schwarzenegger

(Continue Reading)

A very Happy New Year to you and your family. Wish you all a prosperous year and a year that brings growth and success.

As mentioned in an earlier post this new year will bring some great improvements for this blog. Tell us what you would like to hear on this blog, speak up in the comments section below.

Photo Courtesy: Epic Fireworks

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