How to Craft a Personal Vision--And Own It!
Kylie hit the ground running day after day. She supercharged team meetings with energy, leaving people fired up to take action. She also met deadlines religiously, delivering impressive work. But when a friend asked her over coffee about her personal vision, she felt stumped. “I’ve held the same role for five years—will the next ten bring more of the same? It’s been a good run, but I’m not sure that’s what I want,” she confided in her friend.
Have you ever thought about your personal vision for your leadership? Or, like Kylie, do you keep pushing forward without getting clear on what feels most fulfilling to you—in work, leadership and life?
That’s an incredibly common dilemma - even more so for women in leadership, who tend to navigate additional pressures of home and work with less time to identify what’s fulfilling. You can course-correct through the exercises I’m about to share. Read on to learn what a personal vision entails and how to shape your own.
What Is a Personal Vision—and Why Do You Need One?
Your personal vision encompasses your life’s purpose, goals, and ideals. It spans both work and personal life, as each informs the other. Your vision can articulate what you ultimately wish to achieve. More importantly, though, it should focus on the change you wish to make in the world each day. It should zero in on what brings you the most satisfaction—both in your work and personal life.
Even if you believe strongly in your organization’s mission and vision, it’s vital to craft your own. First, defining your vision through a personal lens dramatically enhances motivation, research has found. Second, a personal vision encompasses more than just work. It integrates your vision for your career and leadership, relationships with loved ones, hobbies and interests, personal time, and spiritual life, as well as where you live. The self-awareness gained by crafting your vision will help you find greater fulfillment in every dimension of life.
Having a vision makes you much, much more likely to achieve your dreams. Women engineers who have a personal vision tend to succeed at much higher rates than those without a personal vision, one study found. Having a strong vision helps us persist in our goals and stay motivated despite biases and barriers we encounter along the way.
Exercise: Crafting Your Personal Vision
I’m going to walk you through a helpful visioning exercise. First, reflect on the prompts below to begin articulating your vision. They’ll help you define what feels meaningful in multiple dimensions of your life.
What changes do I most want to see in the world? How can I play a role in enacting them?
What career moves will allow me to help bring about these changes by leveraging my skills?
What qualities are most important for me to cultivate each day so I can enhance how I show up at work? In my leadership? In my personal life?
What brings me the most satisfaction in my work? What would I like to do more of in terms of specific responsibilities? Why do I find these things so fulfilling?
Which relationships are most important to me, and how can I nurture them?
Where do I want to live, and in what type of home?
What type of work arrangement will meet my needs best?
What type of personal time do I need, and how do I want to spend it?
Outside of work, what interests are most important to me? How do I want to engage with them?
Now, review your answers to these questions and write a paragraph outlining your vision for your life. You can express long-term goals but also focus on how you’ll live this vision in the present. Write in the present tense as much as possible. And remember, you don’t need anyone else’s permission to set your vision. This is about what matters to you, not what others may expect of you.
Bringing Your Vision to Life
Now, take action to fulfill your personal vision. These three steps will take your vision from a set of nice words to a practical guide that will help guide your life.
Post your vision where you’ll see it every day.
Discuss your vision with someone you trust. It will feel more real when you voice it to someone else and receive positive feedback.
Reflect on your vision for five to ten minutes at the beginning of the workweek. Think about specific ways in which you’ll bring it to life this week. Answer the prompt, “This week, I will fulfill my personal vision by…” You can do this as a journal exercise, think about it while taking a walk, or even discuss it with a friend over coffee. The key is to adopt a ritual that you practice at the same time each week.
Two weeks later, Kylie talked with her friend once again. Kylie now knew that her vision included more travel and adventures with her family. She wanted her kids (and herself!) to have lots of new experiences and see more of the world. In her work life, she wanted to focus on mentoring more leaders from diverse backgrounds, as she knew their perspectives were greatly needed in her field. And she knew she wanted to step into an executive director position within the next couple of years. In all, she came up with six areas of focus that encapsulated her vision for her life. Most weren’t distant dreams, but things she could start doing or working on today. Better yet, articulating her vision gave her a newfound passion for her work!
If you are ready to craft a vision for your leadership and want the coaching and support to help make it happen, get in touch! Book a call with Amanda here.
Sources
Jodi L. Berg, “The role of personal purpose and personal goals in symbiotic visions,” Frontiers in Psychology 14 (April 2015). https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00443/full
Kathleen R. Buse and Diana Bilimoria, “Personal vision: enhancing work engagement and the retention of women in the engineering profession,” Frontiers in Psychology 5 (2014): 1400.