“To the person who does not know where he wants to go there is no favorable wind.” ~Seneca

Vision.  This entry will talk about the process of creating a vision; creating a vision as part of the process of making a plan to achieve a specific goal.  I know that I just finished an entire nine part series about creating a vision and I shared that information on this blog.  Still, this will come after “vision” from a slightly different angle and it is information well worth having.

Before we talk about vision again, I’m going to share a bit of backstory.  Some of you know that I am a certified NLP Practitioner.  Some of you even know what that means – at least in the field of self-improvement and self-development.  For all of you though, and for me, I am going to start sharing some of my NLP history and experiences in this blog.  NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) is such a powerful set of skills and learnings and it is a key set of techniques that I continually call upon to help my clients and myself.  How did I get involved in NLP and what does that have to do with “vision?’  Still more backstory is needed for that.

Backstory

So now, I am stepping into the “Wayback Machine.”  (Quick, anyone remember where that phrase comes from?) In 1984, I was hired by a small start-up in Southern California, my first job after college.  I was hired as an accountant and what a wild and great experience I had there.  The two founders of this company, George Handgis and Bob McNulty, had a vision of creating the largest Home Improvement Centers chain in the USA.  Armed with drive, seemingly unshakeable self-confidence, and not much money, they very nearly made it.

This was my first experience with the power of a compelling vision.  It was the vision of these men that made all of the difference with HomeClub.  I didn’t know that then.  Many years would go by before I understood what made HomeClub such a great company at first and such a disaster in later years.  For me, at that time, partly because I was there at the right time, and partially because I worked hard and smart, I was promoted quickly at HomeClub and worked in many positions in every aspect of the company.  What a great learning experience!

1985.  My father dies after an epic and courageous battle against leukemia.  He is 61 years old and many of his biggest dreams, especially of travel and retirement, will never happen.  I am 27 years old at this time.  For some reason, all of the dreams that my father was never going to manifest, all the life that he was never going to live – these things really bothered me.  I made a vow, then and there, that I would retire before I was 40 years old and travel the world.  I was not going to die with my dreams unlived, my songs unsung.  (By the way, I made this dream, this vision, come true by the time I was 35 years old.  True, my retirement only lasted 9 1/2 years, I didn’t realize just how much you could spend if you have a great imagination, big dreams and full-time to devote to spending!)

1989.  I am still working at HomeClub, but everything has changed.  McNulty and Hadgis have left the company, taken magnificent “Golden Parachutes” and the new owners of HomeClub are doing their absolute best, at least it seemed that way to me at the time, to destroy what they had spent so much money to acquire.  I am recently divorced, unhappy with my job, and a single father of a 7 year old daughter.  The process of winning sole custody in divorce court has exhausted me mentally and nearly financially.  Still, I have that vision of retirement – retirement before I am 40 – and for some reason I still believe this can be done – I just have no idea how.

What does all of this have to do with vision and creating a plan for success?  Patience.  I will bring it all together over the next few entries for you (it will even involve Benjamin Franklin)!.  For now, let’s leave the backstory and recap where we are:

“I will return to 195 pounds of bodyweight by the morning of December 31st, 2009.”  This is my goal for 2009.  Here again are the steps:

  1. Write down your goal
  2. Make sure your goal has a clear and easy to measure “What by When”
  3. Check for reasonableness or possibility – can this be done?
  4. If it can’t or feels impossible, the rewrite the goal, changing the amount or the time frame until you can believe it.
  5. Check for excitement.  Make sure that you are excited about this goal.
  6. If this a goal that was given to you by another – check for all of these same things.

Capture

The next step is to do a capture – to write down all the reasons why you want to achieve a goal.  My clients are well versed in doing “A Capture”.  What I teach them to do is to simply write, without editing, and without worrying about reasonableness or grammar, what comes to mind when they think of a topic.  A “capture” should be done without your internal critic (or critics) turned on and without worrying about how you will accomplish something or even the order – what comes first.  You simply want to write down whatever comes to mind.

So, for me, I have this goal “I will return to 195 pounds of bodyweight by the morning of December 31st, 2009.”  Here are the questions for the capture: 1) What excites me about this goal? 2) What will my life be like once I have achieved this goal? 3) What will I be able to do once I have achieved this goal?  4) How will I feel once I have achieved this goal?  5) Once this goal is achieved, what will I be positioned to do that is even more exciting and how will that feel?

Homework

Run your own goal through those questions and next entry you can see my answers and I promise, we are getting closer to creating a vision and getting on with creating your unstoppable plan for success!

Till next time…Jack

“You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.” ~Alvin Toffler