Bringing Your Vision to Reality

In last month’s article, the focus was on how to articulate your Vision. This issue will focus on the next step – going from idea to reality.

One of the questions I’m most often asked by clients doing Vision work is, “should I make it something I know is achievable?” My take on this is, “No.” Your Vision should be bigger than you and what you know you can do, so that it pulls you forward into your new future. So by that definition, you are going to wrestle with how to make your Vision happen, because it’s taking somewhere you’ve never been before. There is a certain amount of natural discomfort that goes along with that. Expect it and accept it.

Once you’ve committed to a Vision, ensure that virtually everything you do in your life is in integrity with that Vision. When faced with a decision, ask yourself, “is this bringing me closer to my Vision, or is it a detour?” The part of the timetable you control is how often you take detours, and for how long.

Decide on one or two strategies that you’re going to pursue. There are always many possible strategies that can be developed, but I recommend not diluting your time and energy by pursuing more than two at any given time. Pick the ones that you think present the best shot at bringing your Vision closer, and develop an action plan and timeframe around those two. If you’re not getting the results you want within the timeframe, you can always change strategies down the road.

What resources are needed - contacts, training, knowledge, publicity? Identify what you’ll need, what you already have, and where the gaps are. Incorporate how you’ll close the gaps into your action plan.

Making your Vision reality is not a “tomorrow” kind of thing. If it’s something you can achieve tomorrow, it’s not big enough! But it is something that you can take action on tomorrow. You don’t have to decide on the best place to start. It’s more important to just start. Maybe it’s a phone call. Maybe it’s telling someone (like your coach!) what your Vision is. Perhaps it’s signing up for an education program. The way you integrate your Vision into your life is to take action now, and on an ongoing basis.

When creating your action plan, give yourself some short-term and long-term goals. It’s important to be able to recognize some wins on a regular basis, as you may not see results from the longer-term endeavors for a while. This will help to sustain motivation and keep you energized. I believe that one of the most compelling reasons why people give up on their Vision is because they run out of steam, as it really can be a marathon. So it’s important to get your “Gatorade and Power bars” in the form of short-term wins.

Similarly, you want to be able to dance between the micro and macro picture. For example, if part of your Vision is that your new company become the recognized leader in its field, the macro picture might be deciding where you think your field is headed in the future, and what the current leaders do well and where they fall short. The micro picture might be setting the standards for your fledgling company in an operations manual in a way that is in alignment with that eventual macro picture.

The “visionaries” in our world stand out so clearly because it truly is an inspiring thing to see what was once just an idea become reality. Regardless of the scope of your own Vision, inspire yourself and others by doing what it takes to make it reality. And if you’d like some support with that, give me a call!

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E-mail: ginger@magellangj.com
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