A Picture Of The Future: The 10 Year Vision.

Good leaders create vision.

You’ve probably had the unfortunate experience of working for a company or boss that has totally lost any vision for the future.  When this happens people just phone it in, working aimlessly on the same thing every day simply keeping the lights on.  Or worse, people create problems and drama to quell boredom.

But hopefully you’ve also seen the opposite.  Giving people a compelling “why” and a clear picture of what future success looks like, goes a long way.

The same is true for your own life, and the life of your family.

There’s an argument to be made that before you can lead others you need to learn to lead yourself.

So, let’s start by setting a personal vision.

I’m what you might call a “future oriented person”.  I spend a lot of time thinking about the future.  I’ve imagined myself as an old man.  Dreamed about being a grandfather, seeing my great grandkids, exploring the world and volunteering in retirement, etc.

I might be biased, but I think this future orientation is a blessing, most of the time (though it can be hard to “live in the present”).  The problem is it can feel very distant and become impractical. Yes, I vaguely want to be happy and healthy in my old age, but how do I get there?

This is where the 10 year vision comes in.

10 years is far enough in the future to give you space to dream, but not so distant that you have no idea what to expect.

For example, I know that 10 years from now my children will be grown.  I will suddenly have more freetime than I can imagine.  But also, there is so much possibility contained within 10 years.

Here’s what I came up with for a 10 year vision:

• Continually grow in spiritual maturity.

• Have an unshakable loving relationship with my adult children.

• Have multiple stable income streams.

• Express myself creatively through writing.

• Be one of the best 45-50 year old multi-sport athletes.

I’ll write more about how to craft a 10 year vision in a future email.  But for now, give yourself space to dream and imagine your future.

What things are you doing now that you want to continue doing?  What does the ideal state look like 10 years down the line?

What new thing, if you started now, could make a big difference in your life over a longer period of time?

Write some ideas down.  Think about something  you can do to start moving in that direction and take action.

See you next Monday.