Tune Up Your Vision to Ignite Your Business

By Claudette Rowley
Posted Friday, December 17, 2004

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Thanks,
Claudette Rowley

"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens."

- Carl Jung

Creating a vision is the act of embracing what you deeply and fundamentally desire in any area of your life - business, career, relationships, health, spirituality or fun. For those of us who are entrepreneurs, vision represents one cornerstone of our business foundation. And many of us are entrepreneurs, in part, because we have a vision to bring to life.

Even the most well-conceived, authentic visions can veer off course or get lost on automatic pilot. When this happens, it can be a signal to tune up your business vision. Just as it behooves us to utilize our common sense as entrepreneurs, refining and building our "vision-sense" is an often overlooked tool of entrepreneurial success.

To tune up your vision, ask yourself these questions: (Hint: These questions can apply to any area of your life.)

1. Does your vision for your business include the word "should"? If it does, remove all "shoulds" from your vision. Vision is born of what you truly desire and what's authentic for you. If it's not authentic for you, it's not going to be an effective strategy. For example, you have a public speaking business, and feel that you "should" want to be an internationally known public speaker. However, as a result of other priorities in your life, you only want to put enough energy into your business to be a regionally or nationally known speaker. Once you synchronize your vision with what you want, it's much easier to make it real.

If your vision includes a "should" that you feel is essential, delegate it. Shoulds are a huge energy drain. As an entrepreneur, it's more effective to focus on what energizes you. Not only does energy beget energy, it frees up precious mental space.

2. Have you confused your business vision with your business goals? This is a common mistake. Vision and goals are NOT the same. Your vision is the big picture of what you deeply and fundamentally desire, what charges you up, turns you on and brings out the best in you. Even in business - especially small business and entrepreneurship - your vision reflects the essence of who you are based on your values, creativity, passion and authenticity. Once you've identified your vision, you then set the concrete goals necessary to achieve it. Setting goals before identifying your vision is an example of putting the proverbial cart before the horse.

3. Are your business vision and goals aligned with each other? When you tweak or expand your vision, don't forget to adjust your goals. Serena, head of the sales division for a cookware company, described her vision and its supporting goals this way. "My vision is that within five years, my company will be #1 in sales for this cookware niche. Our cookware will be regarded as high quality at a tremendous value. We will be bringing in $2 million annually in sales, and have a national and international presence." In order to build her vision, Serena set these goals: cultivate national and international distributors to sell her product in their areas, get large retail chains to carry the cookware line, and to follow up aggressively with former and potential customers.

4. Does your vision still excite you? At one point or another, most visions need to be expanded, tweaked or abandoned. Here are some common vision traps:

- You feel chained to your vision forever. "Now that I've built my vision, I must stay with it. Even if I don't want to."

- You have blinders on. You miss recognizing the expansion necessary to keep your vision alive and insure its success. "My initial vision is actualized - okay, I'm done."

- You don't honor your own vision style. Some people are vision-expanders and some are vision-starters. Vision-expanders build their vision and continue to grow it and move it forward. For vision-starters, the joy is in the initial design and implementation of the vision. Once their idea comes to life, these folks get bored and restless, ready to move on to the next idea. Both styles are valid. If you feel bored, restless or frustrated with your business or your business vision, these can be clues that something needs to change!

Vision is the "big picture" that keeps us going, the carrot in front of our horse. If our vision is doing its job, we are continually inspired by its existence and by the refinement and expansion of it. Set aside time for your tune up today. Paying attention to your "vision-sense" may just what you need to recharge your business and reignite your passion.

About the Author
Claudette Rowley, coach and author, helps professionals identify and pursue their true purpose and calling in life. Contact her today for a complimentary consultation at 781-676-5633 or claudette@metavoice.org. Sign up for her free newsletter "Insights for the Savvy" at (http://www.metavoice.org).