Many people are writing their business plans for 2012 but what about a business vision? Before you can adequately write a business plan, you must write a vision statement of what you want your business to actually look like in 2012. Most of us would agree in the real estate business that to begin to build a house with a set of plans while having no clear picture in your mind of what that house would look like after it was built would not be the best idea!
The same is true for making plans to build a business but failing to cast a vision of what that business will look like when built.
The prophet wrote, “Where there is no vision, the people perish . . .” (Proverbs 29:18). By first focusing on what you really want, why you want it, and then developing a vision of what your “success story” will look like when you achieve it, you are developing a mind set of purpose and possibility. Vision answers the question, “Where am I going?” Vision is our hope, inspiring us, leading us, motivating us.
In his book, Every Day is Game Day, Tim Enochs talks about the Four-Dimensional vision process:
Discovery. This is when you go through the process of opening your heart to your true self and discovering your purpose or reason for your existence. Your vision lies within you right now. It has always been there. Discovery is drawing it out.
Development. This is the stage where you write a clear and concise vision statement or vivid description. This is a portrait of what the future will look like after you achieve your goals.
Display. This is how you chart the journey from where you are now to where you want to be; and,
Deployment.Implementing the disciplines you have identified as keys to your success.
When I wrote my first business vision, my coach told me, “You can do better than that,” and I knew he was right. So I wrote it again. And this time, I got graphic. I was there, in the future, and all of my dreams had come true. I could see it, taste it, feel it, smell it! I wrote out conversations I would be having five years into the future with people on the street, in my office, and some who called on the phone. It became real to me. When I read that vision to my team, it evoked deep emotion from them all. Why? Because it was so real. And so impossible. Or was it?
One year later, I read it again to them—and guess what? Many of the goals which had seemed impossible at the time I wrote the vision had come to pass! Remember, everything that is created is created twice—once mentally, and then physically. Where does creation come from? Vision!
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