I recently began rereading the book Think and Grow Rich, by Napolean Hill, and was reminded of the importance of having a written vision. He goes on to talk about how to ensure success with your vision through the habit of desire and creating a desire for (and in) your vision.
So, how does one first create a vision that is likely to manifest itself, and then secondly create desire in their vision. This was the question I asked myself. See in the past I have written many visions, but have never seen them manifest themselves. I have had what I thought was a desire for my vision, but maybe in thinking further it really wasn’t the desire Napolean Hill was speaking of. As I thought more and more about this, I began to figure out the answer to the question and set out to creating a vision and more importantly the desire I needed.
As my vision began to unfold and I realized exactly what I needed to create desire, I began to realize others may benefit from the process. So here is how I created a vision I am focused on achieving!
Step 1 – First Determine What Your Goals Are.
In order to determine the vision, I had to first figure out where I wanted to go and what my goals were. I had to ask myself, “what is it that I really want?” When I could answer that question, it was evident how these answers were becoming goals out for myself.
What worked for me was to look at 3 different areas of my life; my business / career, my self-care and personal goals, and my family and what I want for my family.
It’s amazing how quickly I could come up with goals when I defined it down to the simple question, “what do you want?”
As I wrote these goals, I was reminded of one of my mentors who said, “when determining your goals, be sure to take the how out of it.” For many of us, we filter what we write the minute we start to think “Oh, that would be great, but I don’t know how that will happen”, then we stop ourselves.
So, make sure you keep writing, writing everything that comes to mind when you ask yourself “what do you want?” and whatever you do, do NOT filter the answers.
Step 2 – Add Emotion
If you are like me, at this point you will have a list of goals. Do you know what the deciding factor between a goal and a vision is? It’s emotion!
You need to feel it, to create that desire that Napoleon Hill was talking about in this book. Instead of saying something like I want to lose 20 pounds, say I’m so happy and excited that I’m at my ideal dream weight of 140 pounds. I love the foods I create which are both healthy and yummy.
See the difference between the goal of I want to lose weight and the corresponding vision that was created and the emotion that was attached to it? Imagine how much desire is created each time you read it or say it aloud.
So now take your list of goals and write out statements for each that attach emotion.
Step 3 – Create the Story / Vision
Next take all of your sentences from step #2 and weave them together to create a story, a visualization of exactly what you want.
Once you have finished writing your vision read it aloud to see if you stumble at any spots in the story, and edit the document until it flows naturally. As soon as the stumbling blocks are gone reading the vision out loud should be emotional for you. Continue to edit and adjust until you can feel the excitement as you read it. More importantly, you should have the feeling I can’t wait for this to happen. That’s when you know you will have perfected your vision!