The quality of your future is determined by the quality of your vision. When you plan for the days, months, and years to come, are your plans cohesive or chaotic? Do your dreams and aspirations align, or are they competing with one another? If you don’t have a plan for your future, and your wishes feel out of reach, it’s time to make a change. It’s time to create a vision for your future.
You need a vision.
Many of us take life one day at a time and don’t put too much thought into planning ahead. We’ve been there. But creating a vision for your future helps you align your goals and endeavors. When your objectives are aligned, you know exactly what you want to accomplish first. During the creation of your vision, make sure that your goals don’t interfere with each other. If you have a dream that may clash with the completion of another, decide which one is more important and put the other on the backburner. Just because you don’t accomplish it first doesn’t mean you can’t complete it later in life.
Having a vision also helps build purpose and motivation in your life. If you’re able to clearly picture your ideal endgame, you’re more likely to put in the work to achieve it. Vision and visualization also force you to set expectations for yourself. And, of course, if you set those expectations, only to fall short of them, it can be discouraging. Knowing that, you’ll likely work harder to make sure you meet or surpass your expectations. Once you’ve met your goals, you’ll be on track to go after your dreams. Your vision should contain your dreams, desires, needs, and how you plan to obtain them.
Put your needs first.
Although it’s healthy and necessary to have dreams and desires, it’s also pertinent that you focus on what you need. Studies show that humans need six things to live a high-quality life. Before you start chasing dreams and desires, you must have the essentials for survival: food, water, shelter, and sleep. In addition to those survival factors, there are two aspects of life that help us enjoy our time here—other people and novelties.
Humans are social creatures who gain a lot from interacting with others. Those connections spread ideas and perspectives, which help us to learn and improve. In addition to human interaction, people grow from new experiences. When a journey has the potential for growth or failure, our motivation to attempt that journey increases. Unfamiliar activities that lead to growth and understanding, cause us to continue searching and wondering what we’re capable of doing.
Once you know that you’ve got these six survival needs taken care of, you can shift your focus to your wishes and wants. But if you ever feel your sense of security slipping, turn back to those needs and re-establish them.
Start making a vision.
Create a vision before you start setting goals. Your vision will help you reign in your ambitions and help prioritize them. For example, if one of your goals is to get out of debt, you first need to determine why that’s your goal. Is it so you can spend money on people, things, and experiences? Or maybe it’s simply because you don’t want the pressure of owing anyone. Once you understand why you want to meet that goal, you’ll have the motivation to create your vision. Because your vision may be broad, it’s important to ask yourself the right questions during its creation. Consider your desires and why you’re so interested in earning them. Don’t forget that even if something seems unrealistic, it can still be attainable with the right effort, guidance, and commitment.
Focus on what matters to you in your life. Ask yourself these questions:
- What’s going to make me happy?
- Am I staying true to my values?
- What do I want to achieve?
- How do I want to improve my relationships?
- What kind of legacy do I want to leave?
- How do I want to improve myself?
- Where do I want to be financially, mentally, physically, and spiritually in 5, 10, 20, 30 years?
Once you’ve squared a few of those answers away, you’ll start to see a general direction in which you want to go with your life. Check in with yourself occasionally, to ensure that you’re sticking to your dreams and desires. Here’s some extra perspective on how to develop your vision just in case you’re still unsure of how to begin.
See it, be it, do it!
As your vision develops and becomes clearer, start setting goals that’ll get you exactly where you want to be. In order to solidify your vision, you must integrate your needs, desires, and dreams into it. In other words, don’t just see it, be it! Then, do it!
If you decide to create your big vision, we recommend starting in small increments and following the 5-year rule. To learn more about the 5-year rule, click here!
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