You know all about setting goals but have you thought about what it means to set a vision for your life?

A vision combines your purpose and your talents to describe how you want to show up in the world.

It’s the big picture view of what you want your life to be about, and so you can work back from that to identify the achievements and experiences that give you meaning.

Describing Your Vision

Some people do this through a vision statement. For example, in my work life, my vision is to harness financial services and technology for positive impact in Africa. You could try something similar about your current stage in life: make it a wallpaper on your phone or your social media status update. Putting it out in the universe will encourage you to live up to your words. 

Others create vision boards: these show images or word clips of all the important things that all together represent where you want to be. Visualisation is a powerful thing: seeing examples of what you want to achieve makes it seem possible. Your success happens in your mind before it’s made tangible in the real world and that gives you the confidence to believe big and act boldly. Always remember to follow through with action if you want to manifest what’s on your board!  

I prefer to paint with words so instead of a vision board, I write a vision letter. With pen and paper, I write down in detail what I imagine my life to be. The manual process of writing, instead of typing, makes me really think about what I am saying and if I mean it.

Once you know where you want to go, it becomes easier to identify goals and choices that support your vision. No more doing things for the sake of it! Act and speak in ways that feed your vision. It sounds intense but the deeper you get into it, the more you experience how having a vision is a powerful principle for organising your life. 

This is not to say that a having a vision makes you blind to the harsh realities you will encounter along the way. Not at all! However, fixing your focus on your vision helps you bounce back from any setbacks stronger, wiser and more energised to succeed in whatever it is you have set out to do.

Detours en Route to Your Vision

You might be wondering what you should do when a problem threatens to derail your vision. Each of us has to come up with a process that is both effective and healthy (emotionally and psychologically). Speaking for myself: by nature, I’m a fixer. When an obstacle presents itself, I almost immediately switch to how I’ll fix it. Problem is - emotions get suppressed along the way because the busy-ness of fixing takes over. I would find myself with solutions that did work but occasionally left me feeling low key passive-aggressive from unresolved feelings.

Now that I’m older and wiser, the way I bounce back is to look at what I did to contribute to the problem so I can check (or forgive) myself. Then I look at the situation to see: 

• can I fix it to stay on course;

• should I let it slide so that I don’t give energy to things that can’t be redeemed; or

• can I use it as a set-up for something I hadn’t thought of, but was made possible by the challenge.

A couple of experiences taught me how to frame my approach this way.

1. I was really struggling in my first year Actuarial Science course so I dropped it and switched to Finance & Economics. This way I didn’t have to repeat any courses or dent my self-esteem by sticking with something that wasn’t working. I graduated with high marks in this new program, knowing at the time that my vision was to be a top academic achiever and not to be an actuary.

2. I was super keen to study an Honours degree but my family couldn’t afford it and scholarships were scarce. This made me hustle harder to get a job offer in my third year of university. It turns out that if I had actually stayed for Honours, I probably would have had a much different life because a global economic crisis happened in that year I would have been studying. Hiring levels have never recovered since then, and I wouldn’t have had all the great experiences this path put me on. I always imagined myself having international exposure academically and professionally. Both of those came to pass but not in the order or as quickly as I originally planned: I got to study abroad in 2019, more than 10 years after my first degree! 

For me, bouncing back from a challenge comes down to doing the next right thing possible under the circumstances. As I do so, I also regularly remind myself that believing in my vision doesn’t speed up its manifestation but it keeps me committed because there is something to bounce back for. 

A true vision anchors you, rather than letting you be a leaf blown in any which direction the challenges of life may blow you.

Wrapping Up

We’re starting a new year and it’s a good time to weigh up if you need to adjust your vision, or set one for the first time if you’re new to this. I hope this excites you and encourages you!

I am a Beyonce fan, and her song “Bigger” sums up how I want to feel about the vision I set for my life. If you could choose a word or a song to describe how your vision makes you feel, what would it be?