What do you mean I need a vision and goals?
I realise that if I don’t get myself organised I won’t achieve half the things I want to. I know I have a certain amount of working life left and then there is that wonderful term ‘retirement’. So how would I go about thinking that through and coming up with something that I can actually do and use? I mean something that is really practical.
Let’s quickly look at the concept of vision. Now vision is about broad brush ideas about what you would like to achieve. When you are a certain age, after a particular time period or even on your death bed, what would you like to look around you and see or have already achieved? Visions are an end in themselves, something to be achieved over time.
Goals are the next stage after deciding on a vision. For myself I wrote these goals into a vision statement that had all the achievements I would like to see. So my goals are the means to an end that will make my vision a plausible reality. This is where we get down to the nitty-gritty of how we might achieve our vision. Otherwise if we don’t have goals, our vision will remain a dream! A lovely thought but little chance of being achieved. Goals are the stepping stones large and small that I am going to step on to get to my vision. The wonderful thing about a path made of stepping stones is it can be easily adapted and moved. So what are the things that I need to achieve to see my vision happen?
Spend time thinking about where you would like to be or what you would like to have achieved in a certain time frame, remember broad ideas. Then write it down otherwise all it will be is just a dream. Take a risk you have nothing to lose!
As the poet Robert Frost said, “I took the one [road] less travelled by and that has made all the difference.”
Blessings
Paul Monahan
