First of all, I know the personal goals of these seven categories are addressed later.  I’ve spent time in the past defining details of goals that I hope to accomplish in my life and will update and share those later, but not at this point… just know that they are there and will require more focus than what is asked here.  Defining ideal relationships in this setting is pretty awkward and boring for the reader, so let’s skip it.  And you can probably imagine what to include in contributions to the larger community… in fact, some of such contributions were in my 30 things.

To get you thinking about your vision for each of these items, some stimulating questions follow:

Relationships

• Describe the ideal relationship with your family and friends
• What is your relationship like?
• Who are your friends?
• What is the quality of relationships with your friends?
• What do those friendships feel like?
• Are they loving, supportive, empowering?
• What kinds of things do you do together?

Personal

• Describe the personal arena of your life.
• Are you going back to school, getting training, attending workshops, seeking therapy for a past hurt or growing spiritually?
• Do you meditate or go on spiritual retreats with your church?
• Do you want to learn to play an instrument or write your autobiography?
• Do you want to run a marathon or take an art class?
• Do you want to travel to other countries?

Community

• Focus on the community you live in, the community you’ve chosen.
• What does it look like when it is operating perfectly?
• What kinds of community activities take place there?
• What about your charitable work?
• What do you do to help others make a difference?
• How often do you participate in these activities?
• Who are you helping?

Capturing Your Vision

Once you know your vision, how are you capturing it?  Where are you documenting your ideal life?  What you write down is big, important stuff… at least in your life.  Value and treasure it.  Don’t simply jot it down on a notebook.  Buy a journal and take the time to document it there.  Once you clarify your vision, you should review it often.  Keep it fresh in  your mind and use a tool that is durable for the frequent use it should receive.

I’ve found time to write about my vision on this site, but also capture it in a nice journal I picked up.  Not only to I review the items in the journal (almost) daily, I take the journal with me as I go to work or travel.  If inspiration hits and I find something to add to my 30 things, my vision or my goals, I don’t have to wait to do it.  Value the information you are capturing.  It is important.  Don’t take it for granted.

book credit: The Success Principles

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Free Time:

• What are you doing with your family and friends in the free time you’ve created for yourself?  We spend a lot of our time traveling to new and interesting locations.  Our family takes two annual trips: one to a tropical location and the second to country or location we have never been before.  When we are not traveling we spend time together reading or doing outdoor activities such as hiking or various sports.
• What hobbies are you pursuing? I participate in Ironmans, marathons and perhaps even ultra-marathons.  I have a team of friends that complete an adventure race every year or two.
• What kinds of vacations do you take? Exciting and adventurous vacations.
• What do you do for fun? Finding challenging things to accomplish.

Health:

• What is your ideal vision for your body and physical health? Great shape.  Superior condition. My physical body is able to complete long, challenging endurance races and my mental mindset does not interfere with these accomplishments.
• How long do you live? I’m alive and active into my 90’s.
• Are you open, relaxed, and in an ecstatic state of bliss all day long? You bet.
• Flexible and strong? Yes – I need to work on this.
• Do you exercise, eat good food, drink lots of water? Yes.  I’m a conscious eater and exercise frequently. 
  

Clarifying your vision is a tedious task.  It’s difficult to fully capture everything succinctly.  It’s probably best to consider this a constant work in progress.  As your ideals and visions change, you should update the different sections of your vision to reflect those changes.

Are you clarifying your vision?  Share it by posting a link in the comments.

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The Financials:

• What is your annual income?  Passive income that supports all monthly expenses and active income that is not needed, but allows for additional discretionary spending.
• What does your cash flow look like?  Continuous passive income and as much active income as I’m interested in
• How much money do you have in savings?  Enough to pay off all liabilities if needed and cover expenses for a rainy day.
• What is your total net worth?  The amount of money needed for “job free” lifestyle (and a stress free retirement)

The Home:

• What does your home look like?  An old craftsman style home that has been fully restored and modernized.  Large porch on the exterior and painted in earth tones.  The interior will have very detailed moulding, hand scraped hardwood floors, an upgraded kitchen and contemporary furnishings.  Here’s a good example:
  

• Where is it located? In an old neighborhood with homes of similar architecture and restaurants and amenities within a short walking distance.
• Does it have a view?  A view of water (ocean, lake, etc.) or urban skyline.
• What kind of yard or landscaping does it have? Highly manicured lawn and professional landscaping architecture throughout the property (both front and back).
• Does it have a pool? Yes, one that accommodates friends and family, but also works for swimming laps.

Other Items:

• List what kind of car you drive and any other possessions your finances have provided for you.  I’m not a car guy, so anything that is fuel-efficient works for me.  Other possessions: an upgraded road bicycle and kick ass laptop.

After going through this process for the second time, the first time being my vision for work and career, it definitely helps to define what your ideal world looks like.  It’s difficult to conceptualize some of these things, but taking the time to think it through will help as life progresses.

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• Visualize your ideal job or career
• Where are you working?
• What are you doing?
• With whom are you working?
• What kind of clients or customers do you have?
• What is your compensation like?
• Is it your own business?

My Vision: Work and Career

My work is location independent.  I have the freedom to work from anywhere in the world.  Despite the freedom to move around, my work is still challenging and provides a lot of opportunity for creative problem solving.  In fact, I am involved in several different ventures that require different skill sets.  One project is investing in real estate.  I will travel the globe reviewing financial proformas for real estate investments, both commercial and residential.  When I’m not reviewing real estate deals, I’m working on several web-based projects and applications I’ve founded or invested in.  I virtually connect with my team and partners to review strategies for these businesses and brainstorm other opportunities that we are considering.  My most passionate venture amongst the group is supporting social entrepreneurs.  I’ve founded a forum to promote entrepreneurship in underdeveloped and underserved countries.  As my career progresses, I spend more of my time focused on developing opportunities for those that most need them.

Do to the nature of my business, I continue to write about the successes and failures we experience online and have attracted a decent following of business professionals and other entrepreneurs willing to provide comments and insight on the items I write about.

I have an ownership interest in everything that I do and my compensation is based on the performance of the real estate investments and the other projects we have launched.

Your Thoughts?

What do you think?  What did I miss?  How is your work and career vision alike or different?  Define your vision, don’t worry about how you are going to get there.

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The second part to Success Principle 3 is determining your vision. We determined what we wanted earlier with the “I want” lists; clarifying your vision expands on that with detailed descriptions of what the destination looks like.  There are seven categories to use to help clarify your vision:

• work and career
• finances
• recreation and free time
• health and fitness
• relationships
• personal goals and
• contributions to the larger community

What’s the best way to document these?  I set aside an hour several days in a row and visualized where I was going and what I wanted my life to end up looking like.  I took notes, capturing the details of my vision.  I’ve written a narrative that describes in detail my vision for the seven categories.  It would be a long a boring post for me to re-write those visions here, so I won’t do that – at least not all at once.  Canfield suggests sharing your vision however.  He writes:

You might be afraid that your friend will think your vision is too outlandsih, impossible to achieve, too idealistic, or materialistic. Almost all people have these thoughts when they think about sharing their vision. But the truth is, most people deep down in their hearts, want the very same things you want. Everyone wants financial abundance, a comfortable home, meaningful work they enjoy, good health, time to do things they love, nurturing relationships with their family and friends, and an opportunity to make a difference in the world. But too few of us readily admit it.

Over the weekend I will add my vision for the seven categories on this website.  They may come across as materialistic, idealistic, or something else.  It may not align with your life’s vision whatsoever.  As irrelevant as it may seem to you, it’s a vision, something to inspire you to write your vision for your life.

Once your vision is complete – review it everyday.  Keep it active in your conscious and subconscious mind.  Help it manifest.  How will you know when you have arrived if you don’t know where you are going?

Photo Credit: mind_scratch
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