One of the things I have been receiving the most feedback on since the 5 Ways to Unlock Clarity, Purpose and Confidence webinar is the importance of vision, so I thought I would share some of the reasons that I believe that having a vision is of immeasurable value in our lives. It’s so timeous given the time of year we are in. Like many others, you may be contemplating what 2022 has yielded in your life, and how it serves you, where may feel like you’ve fallen short and how you’d like to create the year that is lying ahead of you. 

Before tucking into the value of vision, let’s clarify what vision is and more importantly, what vision is not. 

A vision is a pursuit you are willing to apply yourself to. It’s about creating a result. A vision can be long-term and complex with many different intentions and goals and outcomes that create what you desire. Big career, business, wellbeing, fitness or lifestyle goals may be thought of as long-term, complex visions. These have the ability not only to overhaul one’s external reality, but also a person’s sense of self and identity. 

The one thing I know for sure is that creating, or for that matter, not creating one’s vision has a prices tag. When committing to one’s vision, it’s important to unpack what the cost of creating of that vision is, and committing to paying that price. It’s immeasurably valuable to also know the cost of not creating the vision. Either way, the value of pursuing our vision is created on a foundation of letting go of some aspect of comfort and familiarity and accepting some or the other discomfort. Without welcoming this, one’s vision remains a pipe dream and a source of frustration and disappointment. 

A vision can also be short-term and simple. A vision for a meal may have a few moving parts to it, but it is accomplished within a short space of time relative to a long-term goal. This does not mean that its impact on ones’ sense of self is trifling. It can be as identity altering as a long-term goal, depending on the inner game one has to take on to accomplish the goal. Until not to long ago, the idea of making and serving a biryani shook me and tested the perfectionist in me to her core. The confidence and the shift in my sense of self was not insignificant. An enormous story running through my mind was permanently altered. 

What a vision is not, is mere fancy, daydreaming and wishing. A vision includes the commitment to create and to re-create as needs be so that the outcome is achieved. A vision facilitates transformation internally and externally. Whilst a vision, once cast, may not be accomplished, the objective of a vision is to pick a direction in which to invest one’s time, energy and focus in the pursuit of that vision. Often, one has to also make the uncomfortable decision to cut off alternate ways to deploy this same time, energy and focus. 

I’ve been shooting the breeze with a few people about vision. These are some of the reasons that have come up why vision has infinite value. I’d love to hear yours too.

1. Vision enrols our Creativity – Without vision, we are unable to side-step life on autopilot, and every day is at risk of being groundhog day. The moment we choose to step off of autopilot, we learn to use our resources, imagination and problem solving skills in different, new and interesting ways. 
2. Vision recreates our identity – I once read that our identity is a reflection of what we are committed to. With all my heart I wanted to dispute this, but found that I was unable to. Who we are is a reflection of the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and our place in our world. Who we are also a reflection of our boundaries and of what we make space for in our lives and how we create and show up to our challenges and opportunities. Our visions for our lives and careers significantly supports us to decide what we say ‘yes’ to and what we say ‘no’ to. Without a vision, we simply repeat the known in what we do and who we are.
3. Vision enlists our resources and resourcefulness – we rarely know just how resourceful we are or how many resources we have or what resources we actually have access to unless we are actively striving for something
4. Vision brings you to Growth’s door – When we pursue our vision, we confront the unknown; especially the unknown within. Our self-limiting beliefs reveal the ways in which we can shift our stories and find our strengths and courage, and ultimately recreate ourselves.
5. Vision helps us to recreate our reality – Knowing where we want to go reshapes where we place our focus, time and energy. Whilst the world itself may not change, how we see the world alters as we commit to our vision
6. Vision recreates our relationships – This is true for our relationship with ourselves and others. As we step up to our vision, our teachers, peers and tribe emerge. With our vision activated, we learn very quickly that we need to grow, or even radically shift our community to become the person that we need to be to realise our vision
7. Our vision introduces us to our daily personal power – the more we reshape our daily choices and habits to reflect our vision for ourselves, the more we step into our self-belief, self-trust and confidence. 
8. Our vision keeps life purposeful – When we know why we are doing what we are doing we can overcome the obstacles that are inevitable. Humans are meaning making machines. Far too often we generate meaning from a place of fear and reaction. this can be depleting and downright soul destroying. When we have a sense of what where are moving toward, and knowing why it matters to us, we are able to remain connected to something bigger than the day-to-day foibles that we inevitably collide with. 
9. Alignment – back to placing our focus, time and energy into an intentional system. Knowing what endgame we are creating and why we are creating it, we can align what we do with how we do it, knowing who we intend to become through the process of doing it. 
10. Stave off Burnout – The modern tragedy we are all living through is the reality or the risk of falling prey to burnout. Burnout has devastating consequences for us in both the shot and the long-term. One of the biggest benefits of being committed to an aligned vision is knowing how to use our energy and how to refuel ourselves so that we can ensure that the vision we yearn for actually transpires in a way that feels ecological for us. In the modern world we find ourselves in, this is no small feat. The value of vision is not in saying ‘yes’ to more things. It is in solidly saying ‘no’ to the things that interfere and distract you from what you intend to create and who you are committed to becoming. 

I could go on. Really, I could. 

I believe that vision is vital for our wellbeing and that it is our best chance for creating a life that is aligned and fueled with personal integrity. 

If creating your vision feels complicated, daunting or overwhelming to you, please don’t hesitate to give me a shout. I have some lovely resources that can help you shift past this and help you think through the life you want to create. 

I have 3 slots available for Clarity Calls over the month of November. Please grab your chance to explore the blocks to your clarity and vision here.