“Begin with the end in mind” is based on the principle that all things are created twice. There’s a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation to all things. – Stephen Covey
One of the many things I’ve learned in project management is that “starting with the end in mind” is one of the best methods to ensuring a successful outcome. When your team has a clear sense of what need to do from the beginning, task definition and assignment activities come naturally and the team is able to spend more time focusing on the “day-to-day” issues vs. continuously wrestling with an ever-changing scope definition.
A similar approach can work extremely well when envisioning your future.
An article in the Futurist magazine entitled “Envisioning your Future: Imagining Ideal Scenarios” suggests that:
… having a vision is to be an idealist. This idealism should not be confused with unrealistic ideas; it should be used synonymously with having “a standard of excellence”. A person that is by nature a visionary looks into the future as though it is filled with possibilities, not probabilities.
If I look at my future based from who I really am, and document a clear description of what that future looks like, my life starts to become what I’ve created for myself.
After much thought, I came up with the following personal vision:
“My vision for the future is comprised of positive experiences that intertwine my ‘personal’ and ‘professional’ lives into a single life structure. Because of this, the long-held notion of “work-life” balance is lessened, and at its extreme, no longer required. By thinking strategically, I am able to spend my energy on activities that pay dividends over both the short and long-term. A continuous and purposeful stream of explicit and implicit challenges allows my mind to expand at an accelerated rate. With this expansion comes possibilities, and possibilities spark further action towards an ideal state called “Ultima”. My relationships are continuously expanding, but only at a rate where the relationships themselves are developing at a natural and lasting pace. My ability to see the unique qualities of each person and strive towards relationships that are, at their core, genuine, helps build strong partnerships that ultimately become central figures in a life structure built around growth, energy, complexity, awareness and intensity.”
Fortunately, I think this is fairly representative of what I want my future to look like. The next step is to take this concept and apply it to my design firm.
What does my business vision look like? I’ll talk about that in my next post.