Vision is the focus of week two of “10 Weeks to Supreme Productivity.”  You can begin the series here.  This week, I will explore the second key in achieving phenomenal success: creating a clear vision. Most people stumble through life without having a true vision of what success will look like. You can’t move toward what you can’t see.

So this week, I ask you to focus on creating that clear and compelling vision of what your success will look like. Then, and only then, can you move towards it.

Week #2 Tip: Create a Clear Vision

 In work and in life, one should always begin with the end in mind. Baseball manager Casey Stengel stated it this way, “You have to know where you are going in order to get there.”

This takes nothing more than quiet time; time set aside to define what you want out of life and for your organization. Who do you want to be? What will make you happy in your personal life? What will make you happy in your professional life? What is possible given your strengths and weaknesses, and the external opportunities and threats? How would you define yourself in the perfect world? What niche can you serve? Your personal values and your organizational values must be big part of this visioning process. Your ultimate vision must reflect your core personal and organizational values.

Since expectations affect outcomes, don’t settle when creating your vision. Create a mammoth vision, full of success and riches, and expect it to occur. Spend time mulling it over, in your private time, in the bath tub, in the shower, in your drive time, and in your quiet time at night. Then write the vision down. Don’t forget this step…write it down. You are much more likely to achieve if you actually pen the vision. When penning your vision, write one for you personally, and another for your organization. Make the vision you create clear, ambiguous and inspirational. Spend at least one to two hours every day this week visualizing and affirming that vision of success.

Once you have a vision, refer to it and revise it often (and forever!). Once you have defined what you wish your organization is to be, you must communicate it over and over again to all those you will need to make the vision happen (such as your employees and co-workers). Get them to buy-in to the vision. Post it; repost it. Paint the vision until known by all who enter your space.

Finally, remember the words of the great Michelangelo, “The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.”

So tip #2 is to set a compelling vision of your future, full of riches and success, and write it down.

This is week two of a ten week series on productivity.  Check out week one here.  I began the series by discussing the importance of your expectations on success: how expectations affect outcomes. In short, research shows that your belief in yourself and your team will aid you in reaching the success that you desire.

Next Week: “Set Specific Goals“