You Need a Vision Statement for your life
Florence Chadwick was the first woman to swim across the English Channel. Then, in 1952, she set out to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast, a 26 mile challenge similar in distance to crossing the English Channel.
During her swim, a thick fog set in, obscuring her vision. Despite being a seasoned long-distance swimmer, Chadwick struggled with the inability to see her progress. The fog was so dense that she couldn’t see the boats accompanying her or the coastline ahead. After swimming for hours, feeling exhausted and disoriented, she asked to be pulled out of the water.
The shocking part of this story was the revelation that when she stopped swimming, she was less than a mile from the coast. The fog had made it impossible for her to see how close she was to her goal, leading her to give up just as she was nearing success.
She explained to her mother that the reason for her failure was not fatigue or the cold water, but rather the fog. She said, “I’m not excusing myself, but if I could have seen the shore, I might have made it.” The dense fog had made it impossible for her to see her progress, and without a visual reference point, she lost hope and decided to stop, despite being very close to her destination.
Two months later, Chadwick would again attempt the swim from Catalina Island to the California coastline. This time she faced similar challenges as in her first attempt, including the dense fog. However, this time, she approached the swim differently, which ultimately led to her success.
Florence Chadwick used a powerful mental strategy to overcome the challenge posed by the fog. She visualized the shoreline in her mind, even though she couldn’t physically see it due to the fog. This mental visualization kept her motivated and focused, helping her to maintain direction and persistence despite the lack of visibility.
By keeping a mental image of her goal, she was able to stay mentally strong and keep pushing forward. This strategy of visualization is a key psychological tool that can help in overcoming obstacles and maintaining focus on the objective, especially in situations where external conditions are discouraging or when the goal seems distant.
Chadwick’s successful completion of the swim, becoming the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel, is a clear example of the power of mental resilience and the importance of maintaining a clear vision of your goals, even in the toughest of circumstances. One of the key takeaways from this story is that, without a clear vision of where you want to be or what you’re trying to achieve, your efforts lose meaning. This in turn causes you to lose motivation to move forward.
If you can create a clear vision for whatever it is you want to achieve, you’ll maintain your motivation through even the toughest of challenges.
“Vision” refers to a clear and compelling picture of what you want to achieve or become in the future. It’s a mental image of an ideal state that you aspire to reach, encompassing your goals, aspirations, and deepest values. Vision provides a sense of direction. It acts as your compass, guiding decisions and actions. It helps you align your daily and long term actions with your core values and life goals. In business, it directs your company’s strategies, influencing everything from daily operations to long-term planning.
Vision is like the hoop in a basketball game. The players in the game focus on the hoop. Their number one objective is to get the ball through the hoop. Imagine removing the hoops from the game. Suddenly, all of the actions of dribbling, jumping, passing, and every other aspect of the game just became meaningless. Without the hoops there’s no objective. That’s exactly what having a vision provides you in life.
I would guess that some of you reading this article have got dreams and desires and aspirations and goals, but you’ve never done anything about them. When a building is constructed, an architect draws a blueprint that serves as the pattern, the guide, or model for those who will be constructing it. A building can’t be well-constructed without a good, sound, and solid blueprint. Every living person is building the structure of their lives. Do you have a sound blueprint? So often I hear someone complaining about their finances being messed up or on the wrong track. I hear others complain their marriage is still troubled after years of turmoil. The problem is, they are making no effort to make these important parts of their lives any better. The root of their issues it that they have no vision for their life.
These are some of the warning signs that you or someone you know hasn’t established a vision for their life. These warning signs often don’t surface until someone is in their 30’s, but you can find these symptoms in people of all ages who lack vision for their life:
It has been said that if you aim for nothing, you will hit it every time! Helen Keller once said: “What would be worse than being born blind? To have sight without vision” Your life’s vision is the big picture of what you want your life to be and what you want to be known for, including the experiences and accomplishments you want to achieve. Your vision defines the framework of your goals.
So how do you develop your vision? One simple way is to begin asking yourself these questions keeping in mind that the most common elements of a personal vision include health, wealth, and relationships:
As you answer these questions, you’ll want to write those answers down. Once you’ve done this, you’ll next want to craft a narrative describing you and your life as if you’re already that person having made those achievements. The reason for doing this is that you’ll then want to start creating short term and long term goals to work towards that vision. These goals you’ll be able to take and develop into a system for the way that you live your life.
Now, what if you can’t come up with a vision for your life? What if you don’t know what you want to become? Is there a way to figure things out? Taylor Bennett, from Thriveworks, offers these valuable suggestions for finding your purpose in life so you can move forward with your own vision for life:
1) Focus on what makes you happy: Stop focusing on everyone around you. We’re all guilty of feeling a little envious of our friends or the people on our social feeds who are boasting of their recent successes: their promotion, their engagement, their pregnancy announcement. Tanvi Mathew, licensed professional counselor, says you must realize that what makes others happy won’t necessarily make you happy. “The first thing people have to do is explore and understand what it is that they’re looking for and what it will take for them to feel happy. The biggest barrier to being able to do this is we’re looking at everyone else’s accomplishments and how they’ve acquired happiness,” she explains. “People have to spend less time on looking at others and more time reflecting on their wants and needs to begin building the foundation and paving a path with direction to lead a more fulfilling life.”
2) Realize your dreams: Do everything in your power to realize your dreams—don’t just wait for them to dawn on you. Just as we must put in the work to achieve our goals, we need to put a little effort into deciding what it is we want and hope to accomplish. Sarah Epstein, a marriage and family therapist, explains: “There’s this narrative out there that we have a dream and then we pursue it. So many of us end up waiting for that thunderbolt of inspiration when in reality, most of us figure out what we want through trial and error. You have to be willing to try new things and notice which aspects of it appeal to you and which don’t. Then start to narrow and search,” she says.
3) Get out of your comfort zone: Taking risks is intimidating for a lot of people—we’d rather stay inside our bubbles and understandably so. But stepping outside of your comfort zone can go a long way in helping you find greater fulfillment. Paul Levin—a certified hypnotherapist, certified NLP practitioner, and founder of I Deserve a Perfect Life—says “feeling stuck in life is the result of living your life in a comfort zone while knowing you could be doing more, living better, being bigger.” He says this is an unpleasant and unhealthy way to live life, yet so many do it and refuse to change. Why? “Because the solution is to get out of your comfort zone, and doing that is scary. There is risk involved in stepping outside your comfort zone, but it is in that risk, that we feel alive.”
4) Explore your subconscious: You can also benefit from paying attention to your dreams (this time we’re talking literally, not figuratively). Often, our dreams have clues as to what’s going on in our subconscious, which might point you in the right direction of finding that fulfillment you’re looking for. Laura Petiford, a licensed marriage and family therapist, explains: “Sometimes our subconscious is way ahead of the rest of us as to what it is that we need to attend to,” she explains. “Keep a pen and tablet next to your bed and write down your dreams first thing upon awakening. There are some great websites to help you interpret anything that doesn’t jump out at you. Let your sleeping hours guide you to a more authentic wakeful life.”
5) Let your values guide you: You can also climb out of your rut by identifying your core values, which should guide your direction in life. Here’s what Licensed Psychologist Lisa Larsen has to say about this: “My advice for someone feeling stuck and directionless is to examine what their values are. What is most important to them? It might help to think about what gives their lives meaning and work backward from there. Once they have identified a few core values that are most important to them, they can figure out what activities fulfill or exemplify those values, or use those values in their lives.”
6) Serve others: Finally, you can help yourself by prioritizing helping others: “Feed someone, teach someone, clothe someone, hug someone, do something good for someone. As a life coach, I focus on purpose and calling; often, my clients feel stuck and are searching for direction. When they feel stuck, my advice is to do something for someone else,” says Life Coach Charlene Corpus.
“Often, when we feel stuck, it’s because we’re focusing on ourselves: ‘Why don’t I have this?’ ‘Why am I lost?’ ‘What’s wrong with me?’ Living a truly fulfilled life isn’t about what we can do for ourselves, it’s about what we can do for others.”
The story of Florence Chadwick’s swim through the fog-laden waters from Catalina Island to the California coast is a compelling illustration of the critical importance of vision in overcoming challenges and achieving success. Her initial failure, caused by the inability to see her goal due to the fog, and her subsequent triumph, fueled by the power of mental visualization, underscore the profound impact that a clear vision can have on our life experience.
This narrative serves as a metaphor for the journey we all undertake in various aspects of our lives. Whether it’s personal aspirations, professional goals, or broader life ambitions, the clarity of our vision plays a pivotal role in guiding us through the fog of uncertainty, distractions, and difficulties that we inevitably encounter.
Developing a clear vision involves introspection and a deep understanding of our values, desires, and capabilities. It requires us to ask ourselves meaningful questions about the life we want to lead and the legacy we wish to leave. This process of self-discovery and goal-setting is not just a one-time exercise but a continuous journey of trying, failing and adapting as we grow and our circumstances change.
The absence of a clear vision, as highlighted through the warning signs discussed, can lead to a life of aimlessness, dissatisfaction, and unfulfilled potential. It’s akin to sailing without a compass, where one is susceptible to drifting off course or being swayed by external influences that do not align with your hopes and dreams.
On the other hand, having a vision acts as a beacon, guiding you through life’s challenges and keeping you focused on what truly matters. It empowers you to overcome obstacles, make informed decisions, and stay motivated even when the end goal seems distant or obscured.
Florence Chadwick’s story is a powerful reminder that the strength of our vision can make the difference between giving up just short of success and persevering through challenges to achieve our dreams. It teaches us that while external conditions may be beyond our control, our internal compass – our vision – is what ultimately guides us to our destination. Cultivating a clear, strong vision is not just beneficial but essential for anyone seeking to lead a purposeful, fulfilling life.
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