Create a vision for success next year

AS WE head into the holidays, when many of us have an opportunity to unwind, we may start to think about what lies ahead of us next year.

It is a given that those people who think about their futures, who visualise what success is for them and who develop roadmaps to achieve that success will have a better year than those who are complacent and drift through the year on whatever idle tide life sends their way.

In this article, I will look at the benefits of creating personal mission and vision statements.

I will show you how to create them and highlight how you can use them to bring clarity to your own objectives and goals.

Treat your own life as corporate leaders might approach their businesses, mindful of what you want to achieve and how you can get there.

Creating personal mission and vision statements allows you to define your version of success. It helps you understand what you should be working toward and you will know if your decisions are helping you move toward your goals.

The clarity that well-considered mission and vision statements bring will also allow you to quickly identify which opportunities you should pursue. Without this focus, you can be distracted or you can spread your effort too thinly across multiple competing goals.

Mission versus vision

Coca Cola provides an excellent definition of mission and vision statements:

Mission: “Our roadmap starts with our mission, which is enduring. It declares our purpose as a company and serves as the standard against which we weigh our actions and decisions.”

Vision: “Our vision serves as the framework for our roadmap and guides every aspect of our business by describing what we need to accomplish in order to continue achieving sustainable, quality growth”.

The mission statement outlines purpose – the reasons for doing what we do.

The vision statement outlines how we achieve that purpose.

Creating mission/vision statements

Authors and academics tout anything from five- to 12-step methodologies for developing mission and vision statements.

However, my coaching experience is that few people go into such detail.

Here are some simple, “fill-in-theblanks” statements that make the task of creating mission and vision statements easier.

Complete the statements below by adding your own ideas between the brackets below:

“To . . . (what you want to achieve, do or become) . . . so that . . . (reasons why it is important).

“I will do this by . . . (specific behaviours or actions you can use to get there).

“I value . . . (choose one to three values) . . . because . . . (reasons why these values are important to you). Accordingly, I will . . . (what you can do to live by these values).

“To develop and cultivate the qualities of . . . (two to three values/character traits) . . . that I admire in . . . (an influential person in your life) . . . so that . . . (why you want to develop these qualities).

“To live each day with . . . (choose one to three values or principles) . . . so that . . . (what living by these values will give you). I will do this by . . . (specific behaviours you will use to live by these values).

“To appreciate and enjoy . . . (things you want to appreciate and enjoy more) by . . . (what you can do to appreciate/enjoy these things).

“To treasure above all else . . . (most important things to you) by . . . (what you can do to live your priorities).

“To be known by . . . (an important person/group) . . . as someone who is . . . (qualities you want to have) . . . ; by . . . (some other person/group) . . . as someone who is . . . (other qualities) . . . ; . . . ”

This process may require some serious thinking, which is difficult at this time of year. Give yourself some time off to regroup but start applying your mind to this before you start the new year.

Your future self will thank you!