How to Create a Vision Statement -

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve become quite preoccupied with mining the depths of my soul to try and discover why the heck I do what I do. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment in time that this little introspection-bomb went off, but I suspect it could be blamed on mercury in retrograde. Or 2012. Or kale-chip-indigestion.

In any case, I came across a wondrous little exercise in a Jack Canfield book that helped me create a vision statement in a snap.

Jack’s book (which I highly recommend) is called “The Success Principles”, and the following exercise can be found on page 23. It’s called the Life Purpose Exercise. If you would like to participate in the life purpose exercise, now would be a good time to grab a pencil and paper. And some kale chips.

Ready to get purposeful??? Here we go…

The Life Purpose Exercise

1. List two of your unique personal qualities (i e. enthusiasm and creativity).

2. List one or two ways you enjoy expressing those qualities when interacting with others (i.e. to support and inspire).

3. Assume the world is perfect right now. What does this world look like? How is everyone interacting with everyone else? What does it feel like? Write your answer as a statement in the present tense, describing the ultimate condition, the perfect world as you see it and feel it. Remember, a perfect world is a fun place to be (i.e. Everyone is freely expressing their own unique talents. Everyone is working in harmony. Everyone is expressing love).

4. Combine the three prior subdivisions of this paragraph into a single statement (i.e. My purpose is to use my creativity and enthusiasm to support and inspire others to freely express their talents in a harmonious and loving way).

Jack goes on to recommend that once you have written down your life purpose, that you read it every morning to help keep you on track. You can also draw or paint your statement and hang it up somewhere you will see it every day.

I really enjoyed this exercise because of its sheer simplicity. When I was finished, I re-wrote my vision statement out with colorful markers and hung it on the wall behind my computer, right next to my alien-like plant from ikea that won’t stop growing and looks like my hair at 7am: