Warp It’s Founder, Daniel O’Connor, is back to share his hacks for how to build a vision. In just seven steps Daniel will help you set up a framework that will guide you in the right direction for the future.

Over to Daniel…

Hey! First of all, I’d like to share with you this great quote from Michael Hyatt:

"The goal of productivity is not to work more. It's to work less so you can spend more time doing the things that you really like."

It’s true, right? If we consider the 80/20 principle too, that 80% of our reward comes from 20% of our work, then we should seek to do more of the 20% stuff. I’m going to walk you through my 7 steps for building a vision, you can call them hacks if you like, but ultimately they should be used to help you find an end goal and work your way there.

Step one: Talk about achieving goals in the present tense

You’ve got to drop the ‘I’m going to’, and ‘If I work hard’ ideas because it’s bad psychology. If you want to make your vision a reality, you have to write about it as if you’ve already done it.

If your big idea is to build a beautiful off-the-grid eco-house with your partner, your goals might look like this:

• We have 5 bedrooms and 3 bedrooms
• We generate all electricity through wind and solar
• We have 3 horses and a boat
• We grow our own food in a conservatory
• We recycle our rainwater for the shower

Step two: Find a quiet space

There are too many distractions and interruptions in the modern world. Close your laptop, turn off your phone, and find a quiet space that is just yours, somewhere you can sit with pen and paper and write. This disconnection from technology will help you to connect to your vision.

Step three: Ask the universe for help

You might find this is a bit ‘woo-woo’, but there’s nothing wrong in putting it out to the universe that you want something. The universe has a funny way of ordering itself to support our goals and dreams - we choose to call these coincidences. Pray, meditate, reflect, look for guidance from peers. People like to support people with dreams.

Step four: Take a reality check

What are the ugliest aspects of reality that you want to change? Writing down the ugly takes away its power, it removes its fangs. Having an idea of a beautiful future is helped by addressing the things you don’t like about your present reality.

Step five: Write down the timeframe for your vision

Is it ten years away? Write down 2 years, 4 years, 6 years, 8 years, and 10 years.

Is it a year away? Write down three months, six months, nine months, one year.

Whatever the timeframe you give yourself, split it up into logical time gaps so that you can break up your vision and embed some milestones. We’ll get onto this in step six.

Step six: ‘What’ is more important than ‘how’

Take the list of things you want to achieve (step one) and the timeframe you have given yourself (step five) and begin assigning goals to different timeframes. You need to realise that knowing exactly what you want is more important than figuring out how to get there.

If you have ten years, it may look like this.

• Year 4: We have 5 bedrooms and 3 bedrooms
• Year 1: We generate all electricity through wind and solar
• Year 10: We have 3 horses and a boat
• Year 2: We grow our own food in a conservatory
• Year 3: We recycle our rainwater for the shower

(You'll want to order it afterwards)

Now you have a ‘what’ and a ‘when’, the strategy for ‘how’ becomes more apparent. In the example above, the first priority becomes energy, which of course would then allow for habitation, and with habitation comes a need for food. The next priority would be a conservatory that produces enough food. So on and so forth.

Step seven: Daily reading

Now you have your vision, you must commit to reading it daily. It must fit on half a page. Perhaps you could frame it, or stick it up somewhere in your office. Maybe it could be the background on your mobile phone. Keep reminding yourself daily what the end goal is.

Well done, we have built a vision together.

Building a vision is much like building a plan

Best done with help