Setting the Vision: Now, Not Later

by Nancy Marmolejo on November 1, 2009

in Inner Game of Business and Branding

image from www.ucdavismagazine.ucdavis.edu

image from www.ucdavismagazine.ucdavis.edu

Are you planning your big breakout year right now? Waiting for the holidays to subside before you go big with your plans? Think January is when it’s all going to fall into place?

NOW is the time to set the vision for your next move… and I don’t care what month of the year you’re reading this in. NOW is the time to set the vision for your success and impact.

If you put off all your planning for greatness until January, then you’ll fall into a procrastination trap or worse yet, the trap of continuing with what’s not working.

One tool I use in my personal life is to give myself permission to start my day over at any moment I choose. There are no “wait til tomorrows”, right now we can reset to the present moment.

Rather than cry “When will this crappy day end?”, or if you’re in business “When will this crappy YEAR end?”, declare to yourself that right here and right now is the time to start over. This moment. Now. Now. Now. Now. (Really- NOW!)

So what’s your vision for making an impact from now until 12 months from now?

Here are a few tips to get you into the mindset of planning for a successful, impactful future:

1. Take a moment to relax and step into a place of unlimited possibility.

2. How would you like to define success? Impact?

3. What would you like to see happen in your business?

4. What would you like to see happen in your day to day life?

5. What would you like this to look like financially?

6. What other ways do you want this to impact your life?

7. How do you see this impacting the world?

Holding that vision of possibility, write about it like it’s already happening. Picture yourself already having achieved what you want and describe it in detail (how about adding a sketch too?).

After you get this down, then you can add in the logistics of implementation.

You have to be really careful with your vision as you transfer it from right brain dreaming to left brain “getting it done”. Too fast of a transition can kill the buzz… I know from experience!

But letting it sit on a vision board without action just puts a decoration on your wall… and not your “medicine” into the world.

Find that balance between staying enthused and implementing by taking small steps and surrounding yourself with people who inspire you.

I wonder what’s in store for you? Let’s keep this dialog going. I’ll share my plans in a future post, but want to get the wheels rolling on the discussion.


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  • cv
    Yes! Awesome idea. I made TWO smaller (more manageable!) vision boards – one for my office and one for home. I found that using more pictures and less words worked the best for me. I’m also going to try to ‘change the landscape’ of the boards from time-to-time to keep them fresh.

    For extra inspiration I went for some good-looking cork boards with custom frames on them. FWIW, I picked them out online at http://www.wholesalecustomframe.com/ . I’m sure there are other places as well, but this place was pretty cheap.
  • Nancy, this is excellent! I have heard people talking about how they are going to really get going "in the New Year", "after the holidays", "when things settle down" and so on. It is just a form of procrastination.

    Annie Dillard said: How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.
  • A great reminder -I do this a lot but then I think I move too quickly in to the '....but HOW?' question instead of focussing long enough on the vision.

    However, each year my life moves on in a new and exciting way and this year (starting today!) is going to be THE ONE!!!


  • Claire, I have no doubt that what's coming up for you will be exciting and rewarding!
  • I have started planning my breakout year for 2010 already :) - as you say finding the balance between staying enthused and implementing is key.
  • hi Garry, that's great that you're planning a breakout year! I hope that you're able to share your vision with enough people that you start recruiting helpers in rolling out your success!
  • A very inspirational post, and something that would be good to read everyday. The Aha for me - permission to start my day over again. Thanks Nancy
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