Aren’t there better ways to accomplish your Vision than by writing it down and just simply looking at it? In short, nope! But let’s talk about that today.
Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here, thanks so much for listening.
Let me introduce you to Eli Hanneman. Now, call me a geek…whatever you want to do. But Eli Hanneman is 20 years old, and from Lahaina, Hawaii. I’m a surfing nerd and follow the professional surfing tour called the CT or Championship Tour. Eli has been a prodigy since he was 12 years old. Everyone knew he was going to be the next great Hawaiian surfer. But, when his professional career started at 17 he limped along and basically was stuck in the minor leagues for the past 3 years…until a month ago…. HE finally qualified.
That day he posted a video to his social media. It’s a video of the Note app on his phone dating back to May 22 of 2022. The date he decided to start writing down his vision and keeping it in front of him regularly. Every morning he woke up, and wrote down the date and the simple vision of I WILL QUALIFY in all caps. He did the same thing every single day, reviewed his vision until this past week he was able to write down, I QUALIFIED!!! He did it.
That is the power of reviewing this thing? It’s motivation and focus. It’s keeping the important things in front of you and not getting distracted by the noise. It’s pushing through frustrations and setbacks. And keeping what matters always at the forefront of your mind.
So, if I were sitting down next to you and asked you, pull up your vision. What would you have to pull up? Would you answer, “Oh, I’ve got it in my head?” Sorry, but that’s not good enough.
If I pulled one of your team members aside and asked them, “Where are you guys headed as a business in the next 1-3 years?” How would they respond? How much detail could they come up with other than just some dry, bland, maybe even catchy rally cry?
Your vision should be regularly reviewed as a team. By regularly, what I mean and what we recommend is a minimum of 6 times a year.
“What, 6 times a year?” Yes, 6 times a year. You want it to roll of their tongues and to get to the point that the team begins to roll their eyes as you read it over. And yes you heard that right, as you read it over! It needs to be written down to the point that you can hold yourself accountable to it, as well.
Here’s the danger of NOT doing this.
You end up somewhere you don’t want to be.
Author and pastor Dwight L Moody was famously quoted as saying, “Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things that don’t matter!”
Let me read that again, “Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things that don’t matter!”
What a profound and powerful thing to say!
That’s what Vision does. It sets your sights on things that matter. And is failure an option? Absolutely! It’s scary to write something down that you could fail at. And, ultimately, that’s why I think most people don’t do it. It’s easier to not know what you were targeting and not know if you failed than to get specific and then to chase after it.
It’s exposing and tough!
But what’s the possible alternative? Getting to the finish line and realizing you succeeded at something that doesn’t matter or something you didn’t want in the first place.
So put some time on your calendar if you haven’t already. Write the Vision down. Dive into what you want for your family and the freedom from work. Dive into financials and your products and services you offer. Walk through your ORG chart and your client avatar and then finish with culture. Who do you want to be as a business?
Man if that doesn't fire you up and make you want to get running after it then keep working on it until it does!
And then once you finish, put it on the calendar 6 times in the next year to pull it up and review the progress. Like Eli Hanneman, the power is in looking at it day after day after day and reminding yourself that success in things that matter is worth working for!
I hope that makes sense today and is something that you will put the work in on. As always, if we can help, head on over to mybusinessonpurpose.com and reach out. We’d love to help!