Do I Need a Vision?

This week we're talking all about having a vision. Do we need a vision? What is the purpose of having a vision? You hear all these people talking about it but what does it actually mean? Let's unpack it together, and let's explore what creating a business vision is.

WHAT IS A BUSINESS VISION?

So, when we hear, what's your vision? What are you working towards? What's the goal? It can sometimes feel a little bit overwhelming. Sometimes it's easier just to keep going on the hamster wheel head down in the weeds getting the day-to-day business done, and I can totally get why business owners feel like that way is easier because it is easier. It's safer, you know what you're doing and you're working on the work in the business.

So let me introduce what the vision is that people always talk about and what my interpretation of it is and how it can help you in your business. When I talk about having a vision, it is a long-term vision. It's out in the distance. It's something to work towards. For me, it's not having something set in stone. It's not knowing exactly where we are going. When we start out, thinking about having a vision, it can become overwhelming for a couple of reasons.

One of the reasons is that if you don't really know what you want, then how would you know what you want to create? How would you know what that vision is? What does that even look like? Then all of a sudden you don't do anything? You start to think that it’s too hard. I don't know what I’m supposed to want, and eventually, you just forget about it and go back to the day-to-day.

When I talk about having a vision I talk about it as a beacon of light. When I say a beacon of light I mean if you imagine a motorway or highway and you're driving along if you have in the distance a beacon of light of where you know you are vaguely heading, that's the end goal you are going towards. When you go off down the road or around a roundabout, you can tell pretty quickly whether you're going off in a different direction, because you can always see that light.

This will allow you to reassess and recalibrate, to ask if is this the right direction for you to take you closer to what you really want. If we don't have that beacon of light, when we go off down the slip road and go around the roundabout, we're going to end up down the wrong road very, very quickly. More importantly, we're not going to know that we're down the wrong road because we don't know where we are headed. Eventually, you won’t feel good about where you are and that could take weeks, months, or years. Then you start to think, well I'm too far down this road now. How do I get back? What does this even look like? Can I get back? Where do I need to get back to? It can all become incredibly overwhelming.

If you don't have a beacon of light or a vision mapped out in your business I would really encourage you to take a step back and try to visualise. Take yourself out of the current place you’re in because otherwise, the struggle you will find yourself in is that you can't visualise the step-by-step because we don't know logistically how we're going to get there. In turn, this prevents us from dreaming.

By doing that we might think; I would love to have that kind of business, but that's not a reality for me right now, so I'm not going to allow that. Creating a Vision allows you the permission to dream. When I say dream, I mean immerse yourself in the vision. As a child dreaming was limitless, but as we grow up we tell ourselves that some dreams are achievable and some aren’t, we basically put limits on how far we can dream.

If we don't allow ourselves the permission to dream about what we want, how are we going to ever give ourselves the permission to actually have it? The likelihood is we are not, so take a step back, have a look. Take yourself out of the reality and say to yourself 10 years down the line, what do I want to create? What do I want the end goal to be and when do I want it to be complete? How do I want to feel about my business? Where do I want to be working? What kind of clients do I want to be working with? Just allow yourself that moment to dream and understand where you're headed and why you want it. If we can get emotionally and spiritually attached to where we're going, and why we want to do it, that fills us with energy that motivates us and keeps us going.

Your vision doesn't have to be set in stone. The trouble that I always come across when I ask people about their vision, is they don't know what the end goal is, they can't imagine themselves out of the current situation and end up going round in circles. This is somewhere that I've been. Going back many, many years I started working with some incredible coaches, I was so focused and driven on creating something I didn't really know what that looked like. I couldn't see past where I was which meant when I was trying to visualise, it felt untouchable. It felt unreachable. It felt like that wasn't for me.

When I look back, I appreciate and can tell how much work I have had to go through, work I did with those coaches who helped me to get to a point where I could see that I was limiting myself and I was limiting my vision, I was limiting what was available for me. Whilst you're in the turmoil of the now, the messy mind goes around in circles, and that does not help you to move forward. We think if we just keep our head down, and we get on with the things that need doing, that is going to move our business forward. In reality that's really keeping you stuck. Unless you can see that beacon of light or a vision to go towards, you're going to keep going round in circles. If you're happy with that, that's cool, that's fine, stay there.

However if you want to move and create something different to what you've got now, to grow your business or create a life or a business where it feels easier or where you can thrive, one that brings in clients that you love working with or whatever that looks like to you. You have to create it. To create it you need to start with visualising it. You need to start with accepting that this is available to you. If you haven't got a vision, if you haven't got a beacon of light, that is your starting point.

I want you to take yourself out of the place you are in and go crazy. Let yourself dream. What is truly available? What do you really want and how does that feel? What motivates you to get into it? Write it down, create a vision board for it. Whatever that looks like, create something that will be your starting block. I'm not saying that every single person has to have a vision board or a big vision written but what I am saying is you need a beacon of light, you need to know you're going in the right direction.

Building a business is hard, sometimes you need a reality check. If we can make it as easy as possible for ourselves by going in the right direction, it makes it a little bit easier to get towards that vision. It’s important to create a vision so it's not set in stone forever. If you do that, then before you know it, you'll be making steps towards this vision and you'll be creating that into your reality. That vision will allow you to keep on growing and changing and evolving, but make sure you check in with yourself. Why is it important that you reach that point? What does it bring to your life if you achieve those things in your business? What's the feeling behind that? What's the deeper meaning? What's the deeper desire?

Get really deep with yourself. This work is not easy because it requires you to stop, get out of the weeds for a minute and look inwards which is hard. When we talk about the inner work being hard, it is hard, but the rewards are incredible. If you want to create a business that is fulfilling and joyful and brings you energy really start by asking yourself, what does that look like for me. That's another really important point. What does that look like for YOU?

Let's use the analogy of a hairdresser. How many hairdressers are out in high streets? There's lots but they are different and each one will make money, they all do that despite doing the same thing. The key is that they all do it in a very different way. People go to different hairdressers for different reasons. So when you create your vision, what feels good to you? What does your future look like? What does your future business bring to you that makes you feel good? This might be money related, but look deeper than that. What does the money bring? What is underneath the desire and drive for one to create that future business? It may be that you can provide a better life for your family. It can be that you give your children opportunities that you weren't ever given as child. It might be to help people. Whatever it is, get really clear on what feels good to you. What vision of a future business would you thrive in and why? What's underneath that?

I hope that my little ramble about having a vision has helped unpack why it's important to have a vision or a beacon of light. Whilst I appreciate a lot of people feel that having something visualised or written down or articulated is either too much for them because they don't know where they want to go, or they might find it too restrictive, I want to invite you to create something that feels really, really unique and really, really good to you.

After that, get out of the weeds of the now and give yourself permission to dream. Give yourself permission to articulate what would feel good for you. Don't critique yourself during this and just let it get to what feels good. Whilst you might be sat thinking, well, that's not realistic, recognise you are limiting yourself before you haven’t even started. How do you know you're not capable of achieving those things? How do you know that's not an option for you? Well, it won't be unless you give yourself permission to have it. It starts with allowing yourself to dream it and to visualise it.

Once we’ve visualised it, we can work on bringing it into reality. We can start taking little steps towards it. If we go off track, it's fine. Don't give yourself a hard time just bring yourself back onto the highway and back towards that beacon of light. This is one of the things that helps you create a business where you feel fulfilled and joyful and where you can thrive.

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