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Sustainability Entrepreneur’s Founder, Daniel O’Connor, wants to share a walkthrough for how he goes about hacking a successful vision- this framework was inspired by Micheal Hyatt.
This framework is an absolute gem for finding clarity, direction, and purpose in your vision.
You should think of a vision as a route map snap shot in time to help you get where you need to be.
Daniel is taking the wheel from here…
Hey! How’s it going? Have you ever heard this Michael Hyatt quote before, it’s pretty important to how I live my life - ‘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’.
This mantra has helped me stay focused, it’s helped me to streamline my activities, and it’s also helped me to find a clear end goal and work my way towards it. There’s a theory (called the Pareto Principle)that 80% of our reward comes from 20% of our effort. I just try to find more of the 20% stuff to do. Ok, let’s get these 7 steps underway.
Step 1 - Talk about your dream/vision in the present tense
It’s easy to defer our hopes, dreams, and aspirations to the far and mysterious future, but it’s not good for productivity. ‘I’m going to’ is bad psychology. You’ve got to start writing your goals as if they are happening right now.
An example of a vision at this stage of your journey might be....
‘My dream self sufficient eco home is sited on a natural spring and my horses are out the back. We have a polytunnel full of fruit and veg and I have removed 100,000 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere."
Joe Bloggs 2022
Step 2 - Go to your peaceful place
Notification, ding! Colleague, blah! Email, whoosh! Everything is a noisy distraction sometimes, so close your tech, go somewhere quiet, disconnect from gadgets, get a pen and paper and start working on your vision. Analogue helps me cut out the distractions and think clearly.
Step 3 - Hi Universe, my name is Daniel, and...
I’m trying to do something amazing, I hope you will support my goals and dreams. There’s nothing wrong with asking the universe for a bit of help. An old friend might appear with timely support, or things at work might change and conspire to help you. We call these things coincidences when they work in our favour. Pray, meditate, reflect.
Step 4 - Step back, gain perspective, get a reality check
Your life isn’t perfect, or you wouldn’t be here. Maybe you don’t feel very purposeful. Maybe your job isn’t all it was cracked up to be when you started. Whatever the negatives are in your life, write them down, describe them, and take away their power. Accepting and understanding what you don’t like about ‘the now’ will help you visualise what ‘the then’ looks like for you.
Step 5 - Let’s talk about time…
One year, five years, what about ten years? How far away is your end goal? When do you want to have achieved your vision, realistically? Once you can answer that question, split it up into logical gaps in time, and break up your vision into little milestones.
Step 6 - Forget how, let’s think about what!
So you might have an idea where you see yourself and others now.
You know when you want to achieve things by, and you probably have a good idea of how you’re going to go about it, but you’re still probably a bit unclear about what exactly your vision entails.
How do you say for sure what you want the future to look like?
Work back from the end point and identify things that need to happen to get to that point.
Look back at your milestones, maybe for year ten you said ‘have a large company that helps people’. You can define that better by saying ‘I want 50 employees and 1,000 happy customers’. Try to quantify your milestones so that they are exact, as vague goals will never seem quite achievable.
With a ‘what’ and a ‘when’, the ‘how’ suddenly reveals itself. You will also notice that certain milestones will be prioritised in your mind. Don’t ignore this fact, it’s key to knowing which goals to drive towards.
Step 7 - Read.
You’ve got your vision in writing, so display it somewhere that you’re going to be able to see it on a daily basis. Frame it if you like. Make it your wallpaper on your phone. You need constant reminders and inspiration.
