What’s Your Vision?

Yesterday my husband texted me a link to a podcast.

“Listen to this,” he instructed me. “And then we should talk about it.”

Um, ok, I thought.

I tentatively hit play and settled in.

Where do you want to be in 5 years?

Oof, that’s a toughie.

Honestly, I get kind of sweaty and antsy just thinking about it.

Which, I know, is kind of ironic given that I’m a coach and designer whose purpose is to help people create a work life they love.

But let’s be real: as a working parent with a very full schedule, I often have trouble figuring out what to make for dinner – let alone what I want to do with my life. 

Like many, what’s right in front of me often takes priority.

So knowing where I want to be in the distant future? Yikes.

Back to the podcast: the hosts introduced and interviewed a coach named Cameron Herold, who’s created a concept he calls a Vivid Vision.

A Vivid Vision is a written narrative of your future – a visualization of what life looks like and feels like well into the future.

Cameron talks about it in the context of an entrepreneur writing the vision for her business, but I knew immediately that my husband wanted me to think about the Vivid Vision for our family.

This kind of visioning is not foreign to me. 

From mind mapping and guided visualizations, to brainstorming my goals and sketching fake magazine covers – I’ve tried it all. 

And I love it –

– that is, when I’m not trying to cook tonight’s dinner.

But listening to this podcast, and later talking with Dan about what we both had heard, it became clear to me that we’re due for a vision tune-up.

Maybe it’s my recent birthday, maybe it’s reaching the 1 year anniversary of when COVID upended our lives – whatever it is, the time is right to get back into the vision headspace.

What’s your Vivid Vision for your life?

This week, my homework is to answer this question. 

To write my own Vivid Vision for my life and work. Dan will do the same, and then we’ll share and compare this weekend together. 

Ultimately, we’ll synthesize and merge our visions into one. For our marriage, our family, our lives.

George Bernard Shaw said: “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” 

Sometimes it’s easy to think that life happens to us. And, sometimes, that’s true.

But life is also about creation. 

What vision will you create for your life? 

What might change for you – and the future you’re creating for yourself – if you took the time to formalize that vision into something visible and real? 

Whether it’s a written short story or a sketch on the back of a napkin – join me this week to give it a try. 

Onward,

PS: Want to see the fictional magazine cover I created last year to imagine the future of my business? Head over to IG to see it. 

PPS: Extra credit! If you take me up on the offer to work on your Vivid Vision this week, let me know how it goes – and what your new vision is!