20-20 Coaching – The Power of Vision

From the Pain come the Dream, From the Dream come the Vision From the Vision come the People, From the People come the Power From the Power come the Change ~ Peter Gabriel

Having a written vision for our life is perhaps one of the simplest, most powerful coaching tools available. Many people hire a coach to encourage, empower and enthused them toward the fulfillment of a dream, toward playing a bigger game… a game truly worthy of their unique and treasured talent. We often yearn to stretch for the realization of our full potential for that is the struggle when our life is stalled in the ‘stuck’ gear. When this yearning to maximize our full human potential emerges, we are ready to set bigger goals and commit to getting there faster. And a coach can support us in doing so.

Powerful Visions Start with Powerful Questions

A vision statement is a great ‘intake’ tool. It gives the coach and the client a timetable and framework for making choices; enables client and coach to monitor progress quickly and in a more meaningful way; increases focus and changes the way a client looks at their challenges; and offers a greater appetite for self-reflection, for self-acceptance leading to less externalizing problems and projecting them onto others.

For example, some of the standard questions posed in the very beginning of the coaching relationship are the basis for a personal vision:

• What do you want?
• What do you really want from your life? Your job? Your relationships?
• What do you want more of? Less of? What have you had enough of?
• Where are you going in life and are you getting there?
• If money wasn’t a concern, what work would you be willing to do for FREE?
• What needs, opportunities, activities, or ideas really motivate you and seem to give you energy?
• What do you think or dream about when you lie awake at night just staring at the ceiling?
• What causes are you willing to dedicate your life to?

Taking direction from the Business Your Way website, a coach might pose one powerful question – one you may have encountered before, “Where do you see yourself 10 years down the road?”

A written personal vision statement, much like those undertaken by a business or organization, captures and answers these questions and more…even questions omitted by the coach but answered by the client in their own resourceful and creative way!

Taking a Stand …Your Vision

Whether our clients are fiercely goal-oriented or looking for powerful conversation, having a vision statement aligns their intentions, gives a course to their actions and supports them in letting go of ‘striving’ as the only available method of achieving their goals.

As stated on the web site of the Christian Leadership World, “vision statements have the potential to be very powerful pieces of communication….a vision statement can paint a picture which creates a sense of desire and builds commitment to reaching the vision.”

In coaching, nothing is more challenging to most clients than the art of commitment and yet it is essential in moving us toward what we want – our vision. Nothing ferrets out resistance and underlying beliefs like an assignment to write a vision statement!

Drawing from both The Cultural Creatives, How 50 Million People Are Changing the World by Paul H. Ray, Ph.D. and Sherry Ruth Anderson, Ph.D., and The Overworked American, The Unexpected Decline of Leisure by Juliet B. Schor, Joan Friedlander captures the challenges of writing a personal vision statement:

“When it comes to actually getting your vision down on paper we can experience resistance and confusion. I personally love this process and find it a fun, exhilarating activity; many others don’t and find it extremely challenging and often frustrating.

Why would we resist this? Is it “The Impossible Dream?” One client recently shared with me how different the experience of imagining what she would really like to do as compared to the experience of writing it down. For her, writing it down and then telling someone else made it real and much more powerful. It also introduced a new level of responsibility and possible accountability, thus creating some internal tension. Ultimately, it comes down to choosing.”

Friedlander, a business success coach based in Orange County, California, adds she “finds these to be the most common obstacles to defining and living from your vision. Many of us are not good at taking a stand. Your vision is a written declaration about who you are and what you stand for.”

According to Friedlander, the most common obstacles to answering this question include:

• Thinking about your ideal life and business is far easier than deciding and then taking action. We fear failure, being called to task, or that we might succeed and our life will get out of control!
• Your life is currently so far askew from what you envision that you don’t think it’s really possible – and to see the gaps can be painful.
• It’s not the way most people live. I’ll bet that whatever you envision, there is very little evidence it is possible. However, visions are like that. They can be huge, inspiring and often lead to roads not traveled, by you or others.
• You think that you would have to trade the dream for some kind of loss: friends, habits and worst of all, money!
• It’s a change and as much as the vision seems wonderful, it will also call you into new, unfamiliar realms and ways of operating. Without the familiar rules and boundaries life can be unsettling.

Creating Your Vision with Your Eyes Closed

On the Business Your Way site, they suggest the following exercise to discover your vision:

Imagine it’s morning. You are looking forward to your day. You are excited because you are doing Business Your Way™ and living life your way. You have done whatever it took to make the changes you needed to make and you can’t believe your good fortune. When you are in that place, experiencing that feeling and imagining your day, go ahead and open your eyes to answer the following questions:

• When do you wake up?
• How do you spend the 1st 1 to 2 hours of your day?
• At what time do you start working?
• When do you stop working?
• Where do you work?
• What are you doing during the day?
• Who are you with?
• How much time do you spend on your own; how much in the company of others?
• What impact are you having on those you interact with? o What product or service do you provide?
• Who are you impacting?
• What are the normal hours of operation for your kind of business?
• How would you like it to be?
• What’s your favorite part of the day? o How much and/or where do you travel?
• How are you spending your evening hours? o How are you spending your free time?
• How many days a week do you work?
• How much money are you earning?
• How much money do you have in the bank?
• How are you investing your money?
• How are you spending your money?

On the www.Vision2Action.net website, creator of the life design tool, the Personal Catalyst™, Michael Kelly PhD offers this direction:

You’re on a mountaintop, looking down on your life. You are pleased with your life. Life is good. What’s that good life like? Look around – what do you see? Most vision statements start with a paragraph about what you are doing. What group or organization are you with and why? Where are you?

Dr. Kelly also recommends 3 steps when writing a vision statement:

1. Consider the big picture. Encourage yourself and your clients to think big! Engage in long-term and big picture thinking! This is a statement of purpose broad enough to involve all around you in achieving the vision – taking into consideration their resources. For individuals it takes in all of what you are and want to be – a vision that aligns your goals while clarifying the conditions for success.
2. Choose a time frame. Pick a time frame for your vision. Research indicates that the further out you reach the more successful you are likely to be. Most people choose anywhere from 3-10 years.
3. Write it down. NOW pretend that you’re already there. Look around – what do you see? This first session is about giving you the time and space to create a vision of the life you want. Let this vision emerge – draw on your higher or divine self!

No matter how you get to your vision, one thing is constant – do not give up until your vision energizes, inspires and motivates you! In the end, a good vision statement inspires you, stretches you, is loaded with possibility and calls you to action.

Vision to Action

As Jo Eady and Steve Spencer, authors of A Clear Vision, (AgLink) say “there is no point in setting goals (action items) unless you have a clear picture of what you want to achieve.

The authors stress that the best thing about having a clear vision is that things start to piece together and all things that you are working on – you are doing because they move you one step closer to achieving your vision. They recommend these tips to ensure you have and can promote A Clear Vision:

1. Is it a credible picture of the future? Can it be believed, and will others be able to see that it is something that can be reached?
2. Is it flexible and adaptable and does it stay out of the operational “how to get there.”
3. Can the people that you need to share it with understand it?
4. Can they relate to it (that is, can they “chunk it down” and is it stated in their language)?
5. Does it inspire? Is it infectious? Does it excite them and you?
6. Does it stretch them and you?
7. Does it have a place for them? And do you help them see the room for them? Can they see that they can contribute?
8. Let your vision evolve naturally.

As for other creative ways to get to your vision, Lois Raats, M.Ed., Personal and Corporate Coach said your vision could be entitled “MY BIG DREAM, and your mission is WHAT I’M GOING TO DO ABOUT IT”. She recommends several creative ways to discover your vision:

• Begin with the end in mind. Take some uninterrupted time and consider the following scenario: Suppose you are at your eightieth birthday. You have had a full life, and have lived your various roles to the utmost of your potential. Many people have come to honor you and express their love and appreciation for your life. There are to be four speakers: a family member, a friend, a work colleague, and someone from your church or community.
• See these individuals in your mind’s eye as they stand, one by one, to pay tribute to you. What would you like each of these people to be able to say about you and your life? What sort of mother, father, daughter, son, cousin would you like their words to reflect? What sort of character would you like for them to have seen in you? What contributions and achievements would you want them to remember? What difference would you like to have made in their lives?
• Your Perfect Life. Ask yourself this question: Suppose that a miracle happens, and the world is unfolding exactly as you’d like it to. In fact, you have been able to create Your Perfect Life. What does your perfect life look like? What is happening different, or more, or less when the miracle has occurred? How much money do you have? Who is in your life? Who is not in your life? Where are you living? What surrounds you each day? What are you doing with your time? What role are you playing in life and in your community? What are you enjoying? What are you learning? What are you giving or not giving?
• Four dreams. Record four dreams for different areas of your life:
  A dream for myself:
  A dream for my family:
  A dream for my community:
  A dream for the world:

The late Thomas Leonard, founder of Coach U and Coachville (thomas@thomasleonard.com), points out that not all envisioning activity has to be introspective. One of the most interesting and energizing ways to explore your own passions and visions is to get in touch with people who share them, according to Thomas.

In their book, The One Minute Millionaire, Mark Victor Hansen and Robert Allen say having a vision is the “Tenth Aha” in manifesting prosperity. In this chapter entitled, It All Starts with a Dream, the authors stress that successful people have a vision.

In the Corporate Mystic, authors Gay Hendricks and Kate Ludeman “distill the secrets of 100 wisest business people.” In doing so, they find the 12 qualities of the 21st century leaders which includes of course the ability to engage people in big dreams, in forward thinking vision…”to stand in a future that does not exist and map out the details.”

Putting your stake in the ground and really developing a clear picture of what you are trying to achieve can move you into that future faster and with less resistance. A coach can support you in holding this vision, this commitment for you even when setbacks and sidetracks threaten to set you off course. Working together we can remain on the path and step lightly into our greatness.

When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid. – Audre Lorde