The Most Successful People Have A Personal Vision Statement

Most time management experts recommend having a personal vision statement. This is basically a picture of how you see yourself. 

What is the standard way to write a personal vision statement?

Before you can write a personal vision statement, you need to brainstorm ideas in the following areas:

1. Things you enjoy doing.
2. Things that give you pleasure.
3. Things that you care about.
4. Things that you are excellent at. 
5. Three things you are proud of achieving.
6. Your values (you can work these out here)
7. Changes you would make if you had enough money not to work.
8. Things you want to stop doing or do less of.

When you have a good list of ideas, take the following steps:

1. Match the brainstormed ideas to the following areas of your life: physical, intellectual, social, spiritual, emotional, and career. Go back to brainstorming if any area is left out. 
2. Where do you get your most joy? Do you see common themes in the brainstormed ideas? Write them down. 
3. What are your strengths? Again, look for themes and write them down.
4. What is the ratio of things you do that give you joy versus those that don't? How could you improve that ratio? 
5. Are you using your strengths? How much? What could you do to use your strengths more?

Write your personal vision statement:

When you have completed the above exercises, you are now ready to write your personal vision statement. This should be no more than 50 words and written in the present tense. As far as possible, each point should be measurable and cover the most important areas of your life. It should give a complete picture and should motivate and inspire you.

What are the weaknessses of this approach? 

1. It is hard to choose your strengths etc. Sometimes your strengths are not always what you think they are or what you want them to be. You may desire to be great at something but really your strength is elsewhere. This can lead to an unachievable personal vision statement as it does not build on your real strengths.
2. It is hard to capture everything in 50 words. That's not many and cutting down means leaving something out if you are not very tight on the word count. 
3. It becomes a wishlist rather than an actionable picture of your life. Dreams are great but if your personal vision statement is distant from your current reality, it may not help you change as it is unreachable.

What small improvements could you make to this approach?

1. Ask others. Other people (friends, partner, work colleagues, your boss) will have a clear idea of your strengths. Without telling them what you think, show them your list and get them to choose. Ask 6 different people. Look for common themes. These are your strengths. Resist the temptation to argue. 
2. Use one sentence per area. Each area of your life (see list above) should have one simple sentence only. These can be very standard such as: Every day I am doing x. Short and focussed means you can't hide behind words. It is clear what you are doing and when!
3. Better to renovate than to build new. Chances are you are already using your strengths and are doing some things that give you pleasure. Your personal vision statement needs to build on that - making sure you do more than you do currently. This is much easier than starting new things. You will also be more realistic as you will understand the challenges better.

Having a personal vision statement can help you focus your time and be more efficient. How would you improve the approach above?