Every decision we make and action we take can either lead us toward our dream life or keep us stuck in our current reality.
If you've been following my personal branding series you are probably wondering what your dreams have to do with building a personal brand. It might seem like the two are unrelated, but I want to talk to you about the importance of creating a vision for your life and then I'll explain why it's important to look down the road to where we want to end up before we begin building our brand.
I am going to walk you through how to build a personal vision story. I want you to think about the person that you aspire to be, the goals you hope to achieve, and the life that you want to ultimately live. What is your dream life? Where do you live? What do you do? Who are you surrounded by? What are you wearing? What are you driving? Where do you like to travel to? These are just some of the questions you can start to ask yourself to begin forming a vision your dream life. You don't need to become a different person to create that reality. You already possess the strengths, talents, and abilities to achieve your goals and dreams. You just have to believe that you can and step into that belief and power.
If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right. Mary Kay Ash
For example, if I desire to become a multimillionaire entrepreneur who has no debt, wears high-quality luxury clothes, and is free to travel anytime anywhere I want, and give generously of both my time and money, I need to think about the type of person who has achieved all of those goals and made her dream life her reality. What are some of the qualities that she possesses that has gotten her to where she is? The reality is that we already have everything inside of us that is capable of achieving our wildest dreams. But we need to start stripping away the limiting beliefs that we have so we can step into the highest version of ourselves. I would venture to say that most of us have life experiences that keep us stuck. We think we’ll never achieve those seemingly ambitious goals because we can’t imagine going beyond what feels comfortable. Maybe you’ve never seen someone in your circle achieve wild success so you don’t believe you can do it either. Deep down you desire it but you have a limiting belief that says it’s not possible. Or maybe you achieved a measure of success in your past, but you weren’t able to sustain it and now you doubt if you can achieve it again. What we want to do when we write this vision statement is to leave all of that behind. Let's set aside the limiting beliefs for a few moments and start to imagine a life where we have finally manifested all of the things that we truly desire. Maybe you’re in a direct sales company and you see yourself standing on the stage of your national convention at the highest level of the company's career path. Or maybe in your vision you build up a multi million dollar firm and sell it which allows you to retire and never have to work again. In order to fully step into your power you need to create the picture of what that looks like. A personal vision story for your life.
Here are a few questions to get started. Add any others that help you writing down your vision.
1. Imagine yourself at the pinnacle of your career or life goals. What are you doing? What type of career do you have? Are you retired? How do you spend your time?
2. Who are you with? Friends? Family? If you’re married or have a partner what qualities describe that relationship. What words describe the other relationships in your life?
3. Where do you live? What does your home look like? Do you have multiple homes? Where are they located? Do you live near family or friends? Is that important to you?
4. What is your financial situation? Are you debt free? Do you have enough money to live comfortably or even abundantly well into your retirement years?
5. How are you giving back to others? Financially? With your time? What does that look like? How have you served others in the past? And how can you continue to change the lives of others?
6. What impact have you made in the world? In your local community? Or with friends or family? What do you want your legacy to be?
7. Do you travel? If so, where? How long are you able to stay? How often do you travel? Do you own a home in a favorite travel spot? Who travels with you?
8. What does your physical health and well being look like? Do you exercise? What types of things are you doing to stay active? Do you have a specific diet that sustains you?
9. How would you describe your spiritual life? Do you attend church, pray regularly, meditate, or something else? What does that look like?
10. What types of possessions do you own? A certain car you’ve always wanted? A boat? Designer clothes or handbags? Art? Things you’ve always dreamed of purchasing one day.
The LORD answered me: “Write down the vision; write it clearly on clay tablets so whoever reads it can run to tell others. Habakkuk 2:2 NCV
Now take all of the answers to those questions and write down a story as if those things are your current reality. Use “I am statements” as if these things have already happened. For example: I am a business owner who lives on a ranch in Texas. My extended family all live on the property which is important to me. Owning my own business allows me to set my own work schedule which is important as I love to pick up my grandkids from school and spend the afternoons with them. It also gives me the flexibility to volunteer at a local women's shelter once a week. Another example: Being an entrepreneur has given me the freedom I've always desired. I can work from anywhere as long as I have my laptop and an internet connection which allows me to travel the world. I have a home in California plus apartments in New York and Paris. I am debt free and love shopping and collecting luxury handbags. I also love to give back to others and donate large sums of money to both my local church and the Boys & Girls Club. Obviously these are just stories I made up because only you can decide what your dream life looks like.
Okay so right now you are probably asking yourself "What’s the point of this? And how does it relate to personal branding?" Over the next few weeks we're going to take practical steps like writing a Signature Style Statement, determining what brand colors to choose, learning how to tweak our makeup when we're going to be on camera, and much more. As you’re building your personal brand you want to do it from a place where you imagine yourself stepping into the highest version of yourself who has created the reality you wrote down on your vision statement. Not how you see yourself in the present moment. Or the you who is currently being held back by her limiting beliefs. It will be really hard to step into your personal power if you haven't given yourself the opportunity to dream. So in order to start at the beginning we need to have a vision of the end goal. Side note: it's okay if that end goal changes along the way. But doing this exercise will at least get us started and on the right path. This is no time to play it safe...DREAM BIG!
I would say to always follow your dream. And dream big because my whole career, including any of the things that I've accomplished, I never thought in a million years that I would be here. So it just proves that once you believe in yourself, and you put your mind to something, you can do it. Simone Biles
Now that you have written your personal vision story make sure to read it out loud to yourself each day. Most people will either read theirs first thing in the morning as they’re getting ready for their day or right before they go to sleep at night. Or you can do both! When you read the statement out loud your brain is listening. And starts looking for ways to manifest those dreams into your reality. If you’re ready to get started I have created a free download for you to write your personal vision story. Grab it here.
Comments