Saturday 5 January 2013

Life vision

I like the act of removing last year's calendar and putting up the new one, especially when there isn't a single mark in it.  The year is wide open to us - no perceived commitments, places to go, items to be checked off the list.  A new calendar signals a fresh start, and grants permission for a mama like me to set aside some time to revel in dreaming about the year and years to come.

I've been finding little niches of time here and there to put pen to paper and articulate my dreaming.  And the first place my thoughts carried me was to what my vision of my life was.  The question itself is simple - when my time left on this Earth is over, what do I want to have left behind?  What do I want my legacy to be?  What is the end that I want to move towards, so that I can better spend my life energy?

I love this big-picture stuff, which I think I've always been good at but didn't really know it until near the end of my paid working days.  In my younger years, I remember knowing with absolute certainty where I wanted to be in five-years time and then laying out the path to get there.  Later on, I remember the luxury of hours researching trends, stakeholder needs, and being able to see the future of my department with such clarity.  In dreams, and in the future, things can be just about perfect.

The difference between those dreams and the ones I have now is that my time horizon is much longer.  I'm not confined to a five year strategic plan.  I (hopefully) have lots of time to take action to live out my vision.  Which means that my life vision needs to be broader than "earn a Chartered Accountant designation".  And I'm not confined to just one aspect of my life that I hold dear - whether it be caring for my family, caring for our Earth, living creatively, or being a productive member of society.  It needs to be a vision that brings all that together.

Some experts believe it takes a lot of time to craft a simple, meaningful vision statement.  And perhaps it does - maybe the fact that I haven't been writing down all my ideas and options misleads me in the amount of time I've spent pondering my life vision statement.  But in all my thinking and dreaming, I knew I'd found the statement that resonated with me most the second it entered my head.  My vision statement:

"I will use my life energy to make the world a better place."
I know this vision statement isn't laced with lingo, likely isn't remotely original, and lacks a way to objectively measure how well it's been achieved.  I simply shrug my shoulders at these minor inconveniences - indeed, I smile when I see my life vision statement in print.  It fills me with hope and promise.  It makes it worth getting up tomorrow morning.  It lets me stay true to my utopian soul.  It speaks to me.  It gives me room to maneuver and for it to remain unwavering, regardless of what twists and turns life throws onto the road.  I feel in my bones and deep in my soul that I've got my life vision right, as I consider that it hasn't changed over the past few years - it fits like a favorite pair of jeans. 

What's your life vision?

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