How To Create A Vision For Your Life

I saw a post on Instagram that completely changed my thoughts on having a vision for your life. Before I used to say you only have one life, don’t waste it. But the good old Snoopy dropped some truth. We only die once, but we live every day!

What a positive perspective to have on life. We are blessed with the opportunity to live every single day! If that isn’t the best reason to have a vision for your life, I don’t know what is.

What is a life vision anyway?

Don’t worry, I wasn’t going to skip this part. You can’t create a vision if you don’t know what one is.

Your vision is a detailed description of what you want your life to look like.

That’s it. Pretty simple, right?

So why should you have a life vision?

Having a personal vision for your life is going to lead you through life. It is going to give you clarity and guide you through goal setting, life planning, and decision making.

Having a vision is going to help you live your best life. And who doesn’t want that?

Since we are friends, I want you to live your best life. So I am going to help you create your own personal vision.

Before You Start Creating Your Personal Vision

I’ve always had very detailed plans for my life. I’ve had a vision for my future since I was in middle school. Yes, I had some sort of life vision and life plan since middle school.

Over time with experience and some added wisdom, my personal vision has changed.

I say this so you know that none of this is set in stone. Your vision can change.

So please don’t stress over coming up with a perfect personal vision statement.

Also when creating a vision for yourself, don’t worry about everyone else. My vision for the future and your vision are going to be different.

A Simple Vision Exercise

Over the years, I’ve done many exercises to help me with setting a vision for my future. But for those that are new to the process, I recommend starting off simple.

When talking to others, I usually guide them through an activity where I have them think about their ideal life. But since I can’t chit chat with all of you one on one, I am going to recommend the exercise from The Success Principles by Jack Canfield.

In his book, he says to create a full and balanced life your vision needs to cover seven different areas: finances, career, recreation, health, relationships, personal goals, and community.

I don’t like putting so much focus on finances. I think making money the root of your future is putting the emphasis on the wrong thing. That being said, I am going to share the exercise as he outlines it in his book, with finances first.

Finances

• What is your ideal annual income?
• How much money do you have in savings or investments?
• What does your home look like? Describe it in detail.
• What kind of car do you drive?

Career

• Where are you working?
• What do you do?
• Who do you work with?
• What type of clients do you have?

Recreation

• What do you do in your free time?
• What are your hobbies?
• What kind of vacations do you take?
• What do you do for fun?

Health

• What are you doing to stay healthy?
• What are you eating?
• Do you have a lot of energy?
• Are you free of illness and disease?

Relationships

• What type of romantic relationship are you in?
• How is your relationship with your family?
• Who are your friends?
• What do you do with your friends?

Personal Goals

• Do you see yourself going back to school?
• Do you learn another language?
• Do you go to therapy to help heal?
• How are you improving yourself?

Community

• What communities are you part of?
• What do you do to help others?
• What is your role in your community?

You can think about this list as a whole and then write your answer down. Personally, I know I’ll forget so I will write as I go.

And yes, you need to write it down.

Writing it down is part of the process because it helps your mind process the vision. By writing your vision down, you are putting it into your subconscious making it more likely you will remember your vision and act on it.

What Comes Next?

Now that you have a basic outline for your vision, you can do a couple more things.

First, you could take this list and rework what you discovered into a specific vision that focuses on the things that are important to you.

Second, you can use your vision to help you set and clarify your goals.

Finally, you can make a visual representation of your vision by creating a vision board. A vision board is a great way to remind yourself of your vision and your goals. Plus it is really fun!