This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to write a compelling personal vision statement that will inspire you toward your Future Self.
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Outperforming businesses have a clear vision to help their organizations stay in alignment and move toward shared goals.
Personal vision statements do the same thing for the individual: they clarify where you want to go in the future and help keep you in alignment.
A personal vision can focus on your professional aspirations, personal development goals, or both.
A personal vision statement describes your future state—also called your Future Self. Think of it as your personal North Star.
The goal of crafting your vision is to simply capture the things that are most important to you.
Why? Because it’s easy to get distracted and to lose sight of what’s important to us.
When we get disconnected from our life’s focus, other people’s agendas come before our own. (Oftentimes, these agendas are cultural or societal.)
Have you noticed how at times every phone call, email, and notification on your screen draws your full attention, w hile at other times, you’re absorbed in your work regardless of the distractions?
Vision doesn’t eliminate distraction. It inspires and helps us focus on what matters most to us.
Vision provides clarity for the future while directing us to pay attention to the present.
As W. Timothy Gallwey writes in The Inner Game of Work:
If you have a clear vision of where you want to go, you are not as easily distracted by the many possibilities and agendas that otherwise divert you.
A compelling personal vision statement can illuminate our way in periods of darkness. It can inspire us to shed all the stuff that holds us back.
As Steven Covey wrote in his best-selling classic 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “Begin with the end in mind.” Our personal vision IS the end.
Finally, a compelling vision statement directs us toward self-actualization.
Even though many people can see the value in crafting a vision for their lives, we often resist the process and avoid arriving at clarity. Why?
There are at least four underlying reasons. Understanding these blocks can free us from the resistance that keeps us from creating a personal vision statement.
From our early education onward, we have been conditioned to make decisions based on limited options. (Think multiple-choice tests like A, B, C, or D.)
We make choices based on what’s in front of us; what we believe to be available to us.
Creating a vision demands that we draw from an infinite range of choices, which makes us uncomfortable. So we tend to stay within what’s known to us.
Visualization is a skill that operates like a muscle. Many of us stopped exercising this muscle during childhood.
Now, it feels uncomfortable to try to visualize and imagine our future.
Many people mistakenly convince themselves they can’t visualize or it doesn’t work for them. That’s simply a belief; it’s ungrounded and untrue.
The more we visualize, the better we get at creating from our imagination.
We’re afraid we may not succeed. We question our competence, our ability to persevere.
We are uncertain of our value: are we worthy of dreaming big? What if we fail?
A part of us is used to playing small. To this part, safety is more important than growth. Yet, a vision is a roadmap toward growth.
The unlimited range of options we must draw upon scares us too.
We believe we need the “right” vision—the perfect vision.
The perfectionist in us needs to craft an ideal vision statement that’s timeless and true for all eternity.
Naturally, this doesn’t reflect reality. In becoming aware of this false belief, it no longer limits us.
How long should your vision statement be?
While that’s entirely up to you, in my experience as a coach for over 25 years, I’ve found that a functional vision statement is usually somewhere between two and five sentences.
Vision statements can be personally oriented, professionally oriented, or a combination thereof.
Let’s look at some examples.
Here are two professional-oriented vision statement examples:
1) “I am a strong, bold, and compassionate leader committed to growing as a steward of my business and as a provider for my family. My leadership team members are self-directed and trust each other and themselves.”
2) “I am a skillful writer, coach, and educator who is highly respected in my industry. My work is read by millions of people each year. I communicate with lucidity, integrity, and wisdom.”
Notice how these vision examples are oriented toward the person’s career and professional life while still highlighting their personal values.
Here are two vision statement examples with an emphasis on the personal:
3) “I put my spirit and soul first in making important decisions. I derive personal meaning from my learning and growth and who am becoming. I feel secure in myself regardless of how others may perceive me.”
4) “I am constantly learning and developing new skills that enrich my life and provide a greater feeling of confidence and completeness. I naturally inspire others to realize their best selves too.”
Both of these aspirational vision statement examples provide clear direction to the individual’s Future Self.
Here are two vision statement examples that combine both personal and professional:
5) “I feel awake, alive, joyful, grateful, and free in the present moment. My heart, body, and mind operate as a single organism. I conduct myself with compassion and awareness in both my work and personal relationships, especially my marriage.”
6) “I am the messenger for the energy of my work which flows through me spontaneously. I move toward integration and wholeness each day, able to be more vulnerable, honest, and open in how I present myself. Having reparented myself and healed my inner child, I am once again playful and creative in my way of being.”
The above vision statement examples are chock full of specific, emotionally charged words that will inspire the individual. Vision statements that combine both personal and professional goals tend to be longer.
What can we observe from the above examples?
You’ll often see vision statements written in the future tense. (For example, I will be …)
In my experience, however, it’s best to craft your life vision in the present tense. You are essentially taking a snapshot of the future and bringing it into the present.
This way, your subconscious mind begins to identify with your future vision right now instead of at some ambiguous and unknown time in the future (a moving target).
Also, try to avoid speaking in terms of the negative. That is, don’t focus on what you don’t want; clarify and state what you do want.
For example, instead of saying that you don’t want to feel chronic anxiety anymore, say that you want to feel calm and centered.
Here are five key elements of an effective personal vision:
Regarding point #5, you want your vision statement to evoke a clear image of your Future Self. This is how you’ll know if you’re moving toward your vision or not.
Below is a list of elements to consider when you’re ready to create your personal vision statement. Don’t worry. You don’t need to know all of these ingredients.
What are the five to ten things you stand by and value the most? If you need assistance determining your values, here’s a list of core values to review. Also, here’s my 7-Step DIY Values Assessment you can use to discover your values when you’re ready.
What are about five things you enjoy doing the most? What lights you up? What can’t you live without?
What are the major categories of your life that always need your attention? (A list of sample categories is found in the Wheel of Life Assessment.)
What are you naturally good at? Positive psychology has found that individuals who play to their natural strengths have more happiness in the present moment. Here’s a summary of their findings on authentic happiness. (You can take a free assessment from the VIA Institute to discover your strengths here.)
If this was your last day on earth, what would you regret not doing, seeing, or creating?
What are up to three areas you strongly want to cultivate skills in that will in some way enrich your life experience? Some of these skills may be tied to your vocation while others may not.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow often told his students: 1 Maslow, Abraham H. (1943) “A Theory of Human Motivation.” Psychological Review, 50, 370-396.
“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately happy. What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualization.”
So what do you find enjoyment in doing? What do you want to immerse yourself in?
What are the three to five things you must do to feel fulfilled in your work?
What are the key goals you’re committed to achieving in your life? Perhaps within the next five to ten years.
Are any of the universal virtues for a strong moral character important for your vision? Review this list of virtues and see what speaks to you.
How many of the above elements are essential for your vision statement? That’s up to you.
Remember, your vision statement can be as short or long as you need it to be.
Okay, so there’s a fifth reason people struggle with finding their vision: they don’t get into the right mental and physical state before going through this type of process.
You create a personal vision by going through a discovery process to clarify what’s most important to you (the ingredients listed above).
To do this, you must be in a frame of mind that’s open, alert, centered, and ready. We might call this mindset the state of mastery. Years ago, I created a simple and effective method for helping individuals enter this state at will. (You can learn more about this program here.)
Below are three exercises to help you access this state quickly and easily.
If you already have your own methods for finding your center, terrific. Use them.
Or, try using the following exercises to prime yourself before you go through any of the discovery questions listed above.
To get in the right frame of mind, t he key is to find your center.
When you’re in your center, you are fully present. Your mind isn’t racing to the future or ruminating in the past. Instead, it’s calm, empty, and alert.
In your center, you aren’t inflated or deflated. You avoid extremes in either direction.
To help center yourself, make sure you’re breathing properly: quietly, deeply, steadily, and slowly.
Next, place your awareness on your heart. Gently smile inwardly at your heart.
Breathe in and acknowledge your heart. Breathe out and say to your heart, “Thank you.”
Do this for three full breaths, still inhaling and exhaling calmly, smoothly, and quietly.
Feel the warmth of being connected to your heart.
Finally, remind yourself: The goal of crafting your vision is to capture what’s most important to you.
You are clarifying your Future Self—who you want to become.
Keep the words of the late mythologist Joseph Campbell in mind: 2 Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth, 1991.
“Just sheer life cannot be said to have a purpose because look at all the different purposes it has all over the place. But each incarnation, you might say, has a potentiality, and the mission of life is to live that potentiality.
How do you do it? My answer is, ‘Follow your bliss.’ There’s something inside you that knows when you’re in the center, that knows when you’re on the beam or off the beam. And if you get off the beam to earn money, you’ve lost your life. And if you stay in the center and don’t get any money, you still have your bliss.”
What is your “potentiality”? What’s your vision for yourself that transcends basic human needs and society’s values?
Here’s a 4-step process you can use to craft your vision:
You’ll want to have clarity on at least the first four of the nine ingredients listed above:
These ingredients represent the raw material for your vision statement. However, the more data you can collect in this step, the better.
You might, for example, block off time to go through Steps 1 through 3 for each ingredient.
You block off Saturday and Sunday morning to discover your personal values.
Tuesday, you schedule an hour to define your character strengths. And so.
Then, when you feel like you have amassed sufficient personal data, move on to Step 4.
Block off time when you can focus without distractions to write your vision statement.
Shut off your phone. Close your email application.
Make sure you do this any time you’re working on a personal discovery process.
Use the exercises above to enter the right frame of mind to delve into these discovery processes.
The point of these exercises is to help remove internal resistance so you can arrive at clarity faster.
The process will go more smoothly if you perform the above exercises to quiet your mind and connect to your heart before crafting your vision.
Remind yourself that this process doesn’t have to yield a “perfect” vision statement.
Any vision is better than no vision. Whatever you create is not set in stone. It can evolve with you over time.
So for now, with all of your keywords and data from Step 3, write down a “working vision.”
Look at it as a first draft.
Allow your vision to paint a mental picture of your life 5 to 20 years from now.
Have it highlight what matters most to you, what you stand for, and who you are committed to becoming.
Write it in the present tense so that it feels as if it exists right now.
Here’s a sample template you can use to write out your vision statement:
Each day I uphold the values of [insert values] in all that I do. I am filled with vitality and passion when I [insert primary interests]. Each week I grow in the key areas of my life including [insert areas of focus]. I feel content and enriched each day because I capitalize on my natural strengths of [insert strengths] by doing [insert how you apply these strengths in your work and home life]. I’m continuously developing [insert skills] for the sheer joy of doing something I love doing.
Only use this template as a guide if it helps you.
Otherwise, craft your statement in Step 4 however you see fit.
Here are a few common questions about creating a personal vision statement.
Writing your vision statement is straightforward. (I provide you with a personal vision statement template below.)
I think the mistake many people make is that they think they’re going to write their vision statement in one sitting. This is a highly unrealistic expectation, in my experience.
The time-consuming part is clarifying the most essential ingredients for your vision statement. Examine the list of 9 ingredients above.
It won’t serve you to rush through this process to complete your vision as quickly as possible. (It might take weeks, if not longer.)
Instead, allow the questions above to percolate in your mind. Ask these questions before you go to sleep. Keep a pen and pad by your bedside.
You don’t need to use force to draw these answers out of you. You need only allow them to come forward.
Once you have a draft of your personal vision statement, consider reviewing it:
Review it frequently until it becomes a part of you.
A few words on a screen or a piece of paper don’t hold much power.
If you want your vision to drive you to your desired destination, don’t just read it. Embody it. Bring it to life.
Create a mental picture of it in your mind’s eye. See yourself in the end picture with your vision actualized.
The more clearly you can connect with the images and feelings reflected in your vision, the more likely you are to take the right actions toward manifesting it.
And somehow, when you’re living your vision, you get external help too.
As author Paulo Coelho put it in The Alchemist:
“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
While willpower is an essential element of creating positive change in our lives, the reality is that it has its limitations: that is, our mental energy is finite.
So when it comes to establishing good habits and making them stick, as a coach, I’ve found there to be two essential ingredients:
Armed with vision and values, it’s way easier to make behavioral course corrections that lead to positive change.
You now have a method to craft your personal vision statement.
Enjoy the process!
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Scott Jeffrey is the founder of CEOsage, a self-leadership resource publishing in-depth guides read by millions of self-actualizing individuals. He writes about self-development, practical psychology, Eastern philosophy, and integrated practices. For 25 years, Scott was a business coach to high-performing entrepreneurs, CEOs, and best-selling authors. He's the author of four books including Creativity Revealed.
