Do you just fall into doing something you love or do you visualise it and plan it?
It’s got be one of the most difficult things to do. Deciding on pursuing what you want to do in life. Some people never seem to know what they want. They just carry on and accept whatever fate is handed out to them. Others, a minority, just seem to know where they are headed and even if circumstances change they redirect and move on.
The great difficulty is that there is so much happening in the world, so many options, so many different choices, that it’s difficult to know what you really want to do. That might be the case for someone who has grown up in a family with reasonable means but what about those who have fewer resources? Even if they dream big, what are the chances of them making a personal breakthrough?
How do you find out what you want to do? What could you do to cut through the noise in your own head and that of others giving you advice and find a direction on your own internal compass from which you can develop your own roadmap?
You could just bumble along hoping that you’ll find your passion or what you love to do along the way. But you could also start thinking about way you want to go in life. There are tools that can help you do this. You just need to ask people or go onto the Internet and find them.
One of those tools is a personal vision statement. You create one and write it down by asking such questions such as what activities in my personal life are most fulfilling, what activities in my professional life are most fulfilling, what talents and skills do I have and how can I best contribute to others? When you’ve answered these questions – and several more that you can come up with on your own – look for common themes.
If your first attempt at your personal vision statement doesn’t work go back and try again. You might also want to try out the hedgehog concept popularised in the book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. Here you find out what you love doing, what you feel you are good at (ask others to evaluate you too) and what you would be able to make money out of or commercialise.
Will your vision change? Certainly. Life’s events are dynamic. You would need to redefine your vision as you go along. It doesn’t mean that your values change but the end goal may look different.
For the sceptics I want to say that I somehow believe that vision is critical even for the entrepreneur. One example: a woman laboured in a deadbeat accounting job four years but always wanted to be an entrepreneur. One day she came across an idea and with in a year produced a double-insulated metal water bottle, positioned it in the premium market segment and to date has sold 4 million units.
You see, it wasn’t just the winning idea they drove it was the vision of being an entrepreneur that she clung to even win she was starting out with little more than a dream.
Want to find out how to come up with new ideas that can contribute to or change your life? And how you can find your purpose and apply it to your life? Do you think I’m running a charity? To find out, you’ll have to get yourself a copy of “Breakthrough Ideas” (have a look on www.ideaaccelerator.co.za — it’s all there).
