Have you ever worked really hard to achieve a goal and then felt deflated when you finally achieve it?
Well, you’re not alone because while having goals are great, having a life vision is actually the key to your happiness and to living a life you love.
Yep I know, it sounds like another thing to add to your to-do list but I promise, this may be the most rewarding thing you ever do to help you get clarity and focus.
And you can do it in under 60 minutes 🙌🙌🙌
What is a life
vision?
Vision setting is about giving your life the direction it
needs, not about specific goals.
A life vision is the future you desire. It is based on what
is most meaningful to you and aligns with your values. It is how you want to
spend your time and how you want to feel in all areas of your life. What do you
want your days, weeks and years to be like?
Why do I need a life
vision?
What you focus on expands, so by having a vision you are
focusing your energy into the positive things you want to feel and the life you
desire.
Goals are the specific steps and actions you take to move you closer to your vision. (To find out more about achieving your goals sooner, check this out).
Consider your life vision as the guiding framework you use
to set goals and make decisions by. For each goal or decision, ask yourself:
- Does this align with my life vision?
- Will it take me closer to my dream life?
If not, then don’t do it. Instead, move on to something that does align.
How to create your
life vision in under an hour
This is my favourite visioning exercise – ‘Write a Ten-Year Plan for a Remarkable Life’ which is taken from the wonderful Debbie Millman in a 2017 interview with Tim Ferris on The Tim Ferris Show. Millman encourages listeners to visualise a specific day ten years in the future and describe in detail what your life is like.
All you need is a pen and paper and 45mins to an hour alone, to think and write without distraction.
Millman explains how to do this below:
“So, let’s say it is winter, 2027.
What does your life look like?
What are you doing?
Where are you living? Who are you living with?
Do you have pets?
What kind of house are you in? is it an
apartment? Are you in the city? Are you in the country? What does your
furniture look like? What is your bed like? What are your sheets like?
What kind of clothes do you wear? What kind of
hair do you have?
Tell me about your pets. Tell me about your
significant other.
Do you have children?
Do you have a car? Do you have a boat?
Talk about your career. What do you want?
What are you reading? What are you making?
What excites you? What is your health like?
And write this day, this one day ten years
from now…. what does your whole day look like?
Start from the minute you wake up, brush your
teeth, have your coffee or tea, all the way through until when you tuck
yourself in at night. What is that day like for you?”
Remember as you do this:
- Anything is possible – dream big and focus on the what, not the how
- Be completely honest – no one will see this but you, so put everything and anything down
- Get into the detail – this will evoke the feelings you want. Use full sentences to describe exactly what is happening
- Revisit the letter once a year, or as often as you want, to refresh and realign
- If you reread the letter and realise it doesn’t resonate anymore, that’s fine! Pick and choose the bits that still feel relevant and sit down and do the exercise again.
Now it’s over to you. Enjoy the process, it is extremely powerful and as Millman says “write like your life depends on it because it does.”
P.S. – Know someone who’d benefit from this? Then share it with them.
P.P.S. – Do yourself a favour and listen to the whole of this podcast. Debbie Millman is extraordinary, and I’ve since become a big fan of her and Design Matters, where she interviews other designers. I recommend checking it out, especially for the creatives out there!