Create your personal Vision Statement

storytelling — Tue, 19 May 2009 05:17:10 -0600

A compelling, powerful vision can help you succeed, become more satisfied with your life, and get the most out of your personal & working relationships. Many experts on leadership emphasize how vital it is for you to craft your own personal vision. Warren Bennis, Stephen Covey, Peter Senge, and others point out that a powerful vision can help you succeed. It can also propel and inspire those around you to reach their own dreams. And remember, if you don't create your own vision, others will plan and direct your life for you.

Peter Senge defines vision as what you want to create of yourself and the world around you. What does your vision include? Making a vital change in some area? Raising happy, well-adjusted children? Writing a book? Owning your own business? Living at the coast? Being fit, healthy and strong? Traveling the world? Facilitating others? What are you good at? What do you love doing? What aren't you good at now, but you'd like to be? All of these important questions are part of identifying your personal vision.

Use the following questions to think about and start to develop your personal vision. It's adapted from many sources and should prompt you to THINK. Find a place without distractions. Answer as many of the questions as possible. It might be useful to discuss your responses with someone you trust.

Things I really enjoy doing
What are my most important values?
Issues and causes that I care deeply about?
Things I do very well indeed?
What I'd like to stop doing or do as little as possible?
What brings me happiness /joy?
The two best experiences of the Past Week?
What would I do if I won the Lottery?

It's now time to pull together your research and write a Personal Vision Statement. Your vision must be unique and appropriate for you. For example:

I am becoming more physically fit every day. I am almost finished studying a BComm part-time through UNISA. I am actively involved in my close personal relationships. I have fun every day at work and play and am doing the work that I love and loving the work I do...

steve@storytelling.co.za

Personal Knowledge Management Project

Personal Vision, Mission, Values, Measures and Purpose Statement

storytelling — Tue, 19 May 2009 05:06:53 -0600

Vision and Mission statements are your guiding principles. They say what you intend to accomplish and create. They are principles you can measure your progress against.

The vision statement is a high-level statement that encompasses your philosophy, goals and long-term position. It is your realistic, credible and attractive future. There is no more powerful engine driving you toward excellence and long-range success than an attractive, worthwhile, and achievable vision of the future.
The mission statement is a more specific articulation of the vision, a statement of how the vision will be implemented day-to-day. It can be done in a narrative form, but a list is more specific.

Vision is the art of seeing that which is invisible, a picture of something that does not yet exist. Organisations and people need vision, they need to understand:

where they are
where they are going
how they are going to get there
what is expected of them and what they, in turn, can expect from others
their purpose and reason for existing (Their Cosmology)
All this is communicated via story

What is YOUR personal vision statement? In a nutshell, your personal vision is what you want to be, do, feel, think, own, associate with, and impact by some date in the future. Why bother? Research conducted with people judged to be ‘successful’ consistently highlights one interesting fact; Successful people invariably have a personal vision statement. Your vision statement is your guide and is vital in helping you judge how far you are towards achieving your goals.

steve@storytelling.co.za