Last week I wrote about the importance of self leadership and introduced the 10 year vision. 

Creating a vision for the future might sound intimidating. But, today I’ll break it down into a few basic steps.

Inventory your life

Look at your behaviors, habits, relationships, possession, finances and beliefs.

Ask yourself a few questions:

• Do I have all my needs met?  What is missing?  What excess is weighing you down?

• What are your beliefs about yourself or the world?

• How strong are your relationships with those closest to you?

• Which of your daily habits are beneficial?  Which are destructive?

• Do you have a creative outlet?

• What do you look to for your security?

Brainstorm, mindmap, make lists, whatever it takes.  Write a  snapshot of your life as it is today.  Keep going until your mind is empty.

Imagine

Imagine yourself 10 years older.  What will be different whether you choose it or not?

For example: In 10 years my youngest will be 19.  So, I know my kids will all be adults, whether I want them to be or not.  There’s a good chance I’ll be an empty nester.

You might be earlier in your parenting career.  Imagine your kids as teenagers.  How will their needs change?  How will your relationship evolve? 

Looking at your life snapshot.  If you choose not to change any of your current behaviors or beliefs what will your life look like in 10 years?

Practice negative visualization.  We usually want to avoid catastrophizing, but do it for this exercise.  It’s just as important to know the spots on the map you want to avoid as where you’re trying to go.

It’s not all bad of course.  Maybe you have your fitness dialed and you can imagine still being fit as you age.  That’s great.  Paint both pictures.

It’s worth remembering we aren’t guaranteed 10 more years.  So ask: if you died today, how would people remember you?

Sobering, but very helpful.

If you’re like most people you have behaviors that aren’t going to help you 10 years down the line.  But here is where the magic happens.  You have agency.  You can change your life.

Dream

You’ve painted a picture of what your life will be like if you change nothing.  Now ask: what do you want your life to look like?

What do you need to stop doing to avoid the most negative future?
What do you need to start doing to live to your full potential?

Dreaming means leaving room for the unexpected.

10 years is enough time, if you wanted to perfect a new skill, start a new career or anything else, you really could.  You just need to start now.

What have you always wanted to do but keep putting off?

Let yourself be playful.  If you’re having a hard time dreaming look at your kids for inspiration. What did you want to be when you grew up?

Write it down

After this exercise you should have a pretty good idea of what you want your future to look like.  You might have the vision in your head.  Now it’s time to write it down.

To give this some structure, I like to use a few categories:

• Faith: Your beliefs, mindset, philosophy and worldview

• Fitness: Your health, wellbeing and physical capabilities

• Finances: Your money. wealth and possessions

• Skills: Things you know how to do. The problems you can solve

• Legacy: What you will be remembered for

Using my 10 year vision as an example:

Faith: Continually grow in spiritual maturity.
Fitness: Be one of the best 45-50 year old multi-sport athletes.
Finances: Have multiple stable income streams.
Skills: Express myself creatively through writing.
Legacy: Have an unshakable loving relationship with my adult children.

I’ll share more next week about why these five things are so important to life as a father.

See you next Monday.

P.S. if you’d like a similar but more structured and detailed process for creating a personal vision, check out Matt Quilliec’s short ebook.