I am a believer in the idea that you must have a destination in mind, in order to travel from where you are to where you want to go. I will call this destination your vision and in order to achieve anything significant in life, having a vision is imperative to this process. Your vision of what you want your life to be, should be specific and incredibly detailed in your mind. Here are some of the questions that you should ask yourself and be able to answer. What will it feel like when I reach the place that I want to go? How will I know when I have truly arrived there? What will I be doing with my time? Once you have your vision defined, working backward will show you the long-range goals that will help make your vision, your reality.
Can you see your vision?
Perhaps as you read this, you realize that you have never really given your vision much thought. Now is a great time to start if you find yourself in this boat. Yesterday cannot be changed and tomorrow is not promised, so you are left with only the present time to take action! Think about your life as it is right now and imagine what you would do differently with your time if you had the choice. This is the first step to crafting your unique vision for your future. This should create a feeling of excitement and wonder within you!
Next, you need to begin to write the milestones that you will need to reach, in order to make this a reality. Long-range goals should really make you reach and stretch your comfort zone to the breaking point. Once you think you have aimed high enough, add another 10% and you shouldn’t be surprised when you hit that mark. I am a loyal believer in the idea that our level of success will rise or fall to the level of our own self-belief. Always error on the side of the challenge, and you will help to create more opportunities for yourself in life.
Can you see your long-range goals?
Once you have outlined some important long-range goals that are necessary in pursuit of your vision, you need to continue to work backward from there. If you can reach your long-range goals in a week or a month, then they are not lofty enough! Next, develop mid-range goals that you can reach in 3 to 6 months which will position you better to reach those long-range goals. You will never reach your mid-range goals without a solid foundation of productive, daily habits. There is a good chance that you will realize that your current daily habits may have to drastically change, in order to change the path that you are traveling on right now. When you think about the entire picture, it should look something like this:
Vision – This is what my life could look like someday (in great detail).
Long-range goals – These are the milestones that I need to reach in order to achieve my vision.
Mid-range goals – These are the accomplishments that I need to reach in 3 to 6 months to get to my long-range goals.
Daily disciplines – These are the daily habits that will set me up to accomplish my mid-range goals.
Vision can be a very powerful force in your life if you embrace it and believe it is possible. It will inspire you, and therefore you will inspire others along the way. It also creates hope and requires faith and both of these will contribute to your personal growth and development. Have you developed your vision? If not, at least begin to think about it and see where it takes you. The worst-case scenario is that you remain where you are right now.
Isn’t it time that you found out your true potential?
You can read this book Living Forward and find out that each of us has but one life to live on this earth. What we do with it is our choice.
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