The first step in creating your personal vision is writing down the goals for your life. What do you want? Do you want to start a multi-million-dollar company? Do you want to become an astronaut? An artist? A stay-at-home parent?
You need to create this list before you go any further. Start by brainstorming. Get a sheet of paper and a pen (not a computer) and write down everything you’d like to do in your life. Don’t hold back, and don’t censor yourself. Write down everything that comes to mind.
If you have a hard time doing this at once, that’s okay. Take some time with it. Carry the list with you for a few days, and add to it whenever something crosses your mind. Keep going until you feel like it is completed.
Again, don’t worry about what anyone else’s list would look like. Everyone is different and unique. Every person has different goals. Your lifetime goals list will differ from everyone you know, even if you have an identical twin. That’s normal and to be expected.
Next, go down this list and think through every item you wrote down. Is this something that you want in your heart of hearts? Or is it something you think you want? Or that you think you should want? Mark these latter items off at once.
What’s left is a list of things you want to achieve in your life. Which ones do you most want to accomplish? Some of them will exert a stronger pull on you than others. Put a star beside these.
After you’ve done that, go back through the list and consider the compatibility of all of your goals. You’re probably going to find that some of them are contradictory or at least can’t be accomplished together. You’re not going to become a famous actor and an astronaut simultaneously, for example.
This is the hard part. It’s time to choose. You’ll have to make some painful choices here -which goals do you want most? Which are you willing to sacrifice to get to the others? Mark off the ones that don’t make the cut. It will hurt, but you have to do it.
When you’re done, copy the surviving goals down onto a clean sheet of paper. This is the beginning of your vision statement.
