7 Questions to Create a Bold Vision
Somewhere along the journey vision gets blurred. We hack away at life without knowing what we really want.
You need a destination – a bold vision – to get where you want to go.
Bold vision is a target:
There’s always a bit of aimless wandering in life. But there are powerful moments of clarity when we imagine a possible future.
Begin with what you don’t want.
When I ask people what they want, they invariably tell me what they don’t want. Narrow your field of vision by getting ‘don’t wants’ out of your system.
Don’t camp out in Don’t-Want.
Paint a picture of your bold vision:
“Paint a picture of the life you want that is so vivid someone else can see it.” Wendy Leshgold
‘How’ gets in the way of ‘what’. First, focus on what you want, even while your inner voice yells, “You don’t know how to do that.”
Don’t let ‘how’ beat down your vision.
You won’t know how to achieve the life you want in the beginning. Paint your future in vivid colors anyway.
Bold vision exercise:
Ask yourself 7 questions to clarify your bold vision (From the book, Fast Forward). Limit your perspective to one year from now.
- What are you known for?
- What were your professional outcomes?
- How would you describe the culture of your team or company?
- What were your personal outcomes?
- How did you grow and improve?
- What is your outlook on life?
- How would you describe the quality of your important relationships?
What suggestions do you have for creating a bold vision?
Many of the books on my shelf represent conversations with smart people. I’ve had many since the beginning of Leadership Freak. I had one yesterday with Wendy Leshgold. This post is inspired by that conversation and the book Fast Forward.
Dig deeper:
Wendy Leshgold and Lisa McCarthy wrote Fast Forward to help people create the life they want. They describe five power principles to create the life you want. This post focuses on principle #1 – Declare a Bold Vision
Your vision needs to be specific and concrete.
Create specific pictures of the future you envision. It’s like going on a family vacation. Don’t just tell your spouse or family, “We’re going on vacation at a tropical resort.” Show them pictures of the hotel, beaches, restaurants, golf courses, etc. Pictures make the idea exciting and real.
What pictures do you carry around in your head of what your future will be?
Great question, Paul. A tangible vision pulls us forward by helping us determine what we should do today. If you can’t move toward your vision today, you need a new vision.
Hit home Dan,
Thank you!
I DM you in IM
Healing is good! Direction gives us purpose!
Imagine trying to assemble a jigsaw puzzle without looking at the picture on the box. Now, imagine your team trying to achieve your vision when you don’t have a clear, concrete picture of the desired future state.
Wonderful illustration, Paul. Thank you for consistently adding value.
Great to see a mix of personal and formal leadership questions included in the seven for which our answers inform our development of our vision. As I reflected in my social media posts associated with this blog post, whether we’re in a formal leadership position or not, we must have a vision for optimizing our lives – and must align our efforts with it of course!
Thanks John. I love the idea of asking, How can I optimize my life? Cheers
Hi Dan,
Great talk with Wendy. Very insightful.
In the discussion of curiosity, I find my curiosity very closely tied to my sense of wonder. Remember as a child your sense of wonder? A few years ago I lived in an apartment complex that did a lot of landscaping. There was a tree next to my parking space. I never really thought about it much until one day I came home to discover that the tree had been cut down. What I noticed was a group of birds standing on the ground next to where the tree had stood. They all were looking with confusion at where their home had been that morning but was now nowhere to be found. Sometimes we need to realize that there is a whole world going on around us and if we pay attention to the things around us we can more easily see the things within. Be Curious and never lose your sense of Wonder!
Thank you for this post. Looking forward to the next topic:
7 QUESTIONS TO CREATE A BOLD MISSION
Refreshing, and authentic talk and post – thank you, Dan!
Looking forward to receiving the book in September. Something resonated when you discussed reverse engineering; my career was medical association management; when planning a meeting – location and education content – we always worked from the date of the conference and moved backward.