A vision is a foresight of the future. Though the mental image is that of oracles, of prophets and Nostradamus, a vision, in daily life, is just a grand plan of what you want to do with yourself. It is your series of goals leading to your ultimate goal, which is backed by your mission in life. When we have a vision for what we want to do with our lives, our steps will be guided with purpose. We are then driven to do everything with the vision in mind.
If you have watched or read Memoirs of a Geisha, you must have noted that Chiyo, from the moment she fell in love with the Chairman, planned her steps to get to see him again, with the dream of becoming his. Her childish vision turned into a life mission: she became a celebrated geisha, and she ultimately got her man. Vision is the backbone and the main driving force of our lives. Without vision to go back to, all our micro-goals amount to nothing. Why, then, is vision key to personal development? When a person finally emerges from the stage of confusion and exploration, he then yearns for direction to his life. But where does he turn to?
All his experiences, insights and realizations could all be funneled into a vision for his life. Vision is the result of our insights turned into realizations turned into goals for change. Vision is a result of learning from mistakes and channeling the energy into productivity. If you want to turn your experiences into a vision for your life, simply do the following. List down the major life lessons you've learned up to the present moment. Go through them, and analyze how you can sum up everything in a single statement. Make the statement. This statement will define your current and future dealings, and the steps you are taking in life should be driven by this one statement.
After you have made the statement, take a few days to be in touch with yourself and think long and hard what you really aim to do with your life. Elaborate this aim to include what you believe is your purpose in living, and there you have it: the backbone of your existence. Actually, the importance of vision in self-development cannot be stressed enough. One cannot progress from adolescence to adulthood if he does not have a clear direction in life. The mark of a made man is his sense of purpose. He does not live life randomly. Rather, each step he takes is a step closer to his goals, a step closer to success.
While there are other components to self-development, like developing a winning attitude, vision underscores everything. That when something in the process of reaching for your goals goes wrong, when you go back to your vision, you will have something to redirect your steps and put you back on your life-path. True, there are so many things that distract us from our goals. It may be circumstances, financial difficulties, or even other people. But when you have a vision for yourself, all these are trivial. When you will be faced with duress of a great magnitude, just go back to your vision, take a deep breath, and walk on. Vision will help you counter discouragement. When you put your focus on what you reach, obstacles become immaterial. Hence, if you want to develop yourself fully as a person, you have to have a vision for yourself. These tips teach you how to do so. Now, get a pen and paper and get to work!