Visioning Exercise: Work to your ideal

The article was written with Management Coach Chris Obst.

Visioning isn’t just for business owners, executives, creatives or mystics.

This kind of work can be used to chart a course for your personal success, the success of your team, or even a specific project.

Marc Allen’s Visioning Exercise

1. Turn off your inner critic, just for a moment. Go with your gut and give your creative self the floor – it’s just a moment.
2. Write a description of your ideal scene. Imagine yourself 1 to 3 years down the road and see yourself living your ideal scene. (Careful you aren’t writing someone else’s picture of success. This is about success on your terms.)
3. Next write some action steps and goals you will have to attain in order to live that scene.
4. Convert your action steps into present tense statements – these are essentially affirmations. “I am thriving in my work.”  “My team outperforms the rest.”  “I swim daily!”
5. Give yourself the time and space to write one page plans for each goal and start down the path.

The one page plans might not happen the same day as the rest of the 5 steps. They might not happen in the same year (so keep your notes handy, you’ll need them down the road).They can be bare bones at first but get something down to start you on your way.

Visioning isn’t something you can do effectively in your office on a Tuesday afternoon with the door shut.

I spent a great day treating myself to the things that inspire me – a beautiful room with a view of the ocean, great food, a workout,  and of course my favourite pen.

This is a perfect time of year for managers to do this kind of big picture work.

What would be ideal for you and your team 1-2 years from now? Operating at a higher level? A more efficient workspace? Camaraderie and encouragement within the team? Or do you see an opportunity for you to take on more challenges, and hand things off to your star?

Whether things are going well, or not-so-well, at this moment, I encourage you to take a day or a 1/2 day to think about tomorrow. And use the image you create as a driving force to live that ideal picture of success.

Any questions about the model I used? Think you could use some help implementing your plans email me.

FYI In this podcast, Allen shares his experience of doing this exercise for the first time. He admits, some of his plans took years to flush out. He also admits, the hardest part of the work is learning to discard limiting beliefs, and accept that you can live your ideal scene. What do you currently believe about your ability to achieve?

This article was originally published in Chris Obst’s Wisdom @ Work newsletter. Sign up for Wisdom @ Work here.