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Sample Personal Vision Statement

The purpose of a personal vision statement is to give you a clear and inspiring direction for the future.

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15 Personal Vision Statement Examples

Now that you recognize it's time to approach your life proactively, you need to create a personal vision statement .

Clearly defining the vision you have for your life requires more than just thinking about it. You need to write it down.

The act of writing something down and then reading it daily reinforces the message and makes it more real.

Even better, print out your personal vision statement and post it where you can see it frequently.

This reminder will increase your motivation and foster the self-growth you desire.

What Is a Personal Vision Statement?

How to write a personal vision statement, final thoughts.

A personal vision statement is a clear, concise summary of your personal goals and dreams for the future . It serves as an anchor when life pulls you in different directions.

It is also a guide for making decisions based on your values, and it helps you stay focused on the goals you want to achieve.

The process of writing one compels you to think about the purpose of your life and how to achieve that.

You'll identify your most important guiding principles and describe how you intend to apply them to your life.

Your statement also introduces you to the power of setting concrete goals. Research by psychologist Gail Matthews found that people who wrote down their goals succeeded 33% more often than people who only thought about their goals.

If you want to live the life you envision, you need to avoid the trap of abandoning your dreams in the realm of the abstract. Writing down your vision is the best way to actualize it.

To get started, you can study personal vision statement examples to get ideas about how to write yours.

Writing a personal vision statement begins with free writing. At this point, you simply ask yourself questions and write down whatever comes to mind. Don't impose any judgments at this point because you want to uncover your hopes and dreams for the future.

• List your personal strengths .
• List your personal weaknesses.
• Write down your core values .
• Think about how your values should guide interactions with family, at work, and within your community.
• Consider the best uses for your life energy based on your inner compass and values.
• Identify some specific goals that you want to pursue.
• Imagine the legacy of your purpose, goals, and actions.
• Examine your notes to see what jumps out as most important.
• Compose a paragraph that summarizes your priorities in the form of a vision statement.

It's important to keep your vision statement as a single paragraph. This way, you'll be able to read it easily and frequently.

If you want to write more paragraphs to address specific goals, that's fine, but these would be supplemental to your main vision statement.

Here are several vision statement examples you can use to help you brainstorm your own. There are no strict rules here related to the words you choose and the concepts you include.

But if any of the statements in these examples resonate with you, feel free to make them your own and rewrite them to suit your goals and dreams.

I want to be a source of stability and inspiration for my family. I commit myself to succeed in my career while balancing my emotional needs with those of family members. I want my actions to promote harmony and increase everyone's chance for future happiness. When stress threatens to overtake me, I consciously take time to calm down to prevent acting with hostility or annoyance toward others. I also express my needs and seek support from others instead of letting my problems stew inside me as I've been prone to do in the past.

My life's work has a greater purpose beyond my own material needs. I identify a problem in my community and take responsibility for contributing to its solution. My purpose is to serve others in a way that best matches my skills and values, and I am committed to making choices in my personal and professional life that furthers that purpose.

My personal vision recognizes that I am a small part of a living Earth. I want to live in a way that represents authentic participation in a sustainable ecosystem. My guiding principle is reducing my negative impact on the environment. I direct my spare time toward regenerative practices that nurture the soil, such as gardening and tree planting. I control my consumption by choosing a modestly-sized home and reducing my production of plastic waste through conscious consumer choices and actions. I become an example to others for the purpose of spreading a greater appreciation for green living.

My vital role in the lives of my children automatically means that I have a great purpose in life. Instead of dreaming about the world seeing my value, I strive every day to be the hero of my family. My job as a parent is to mindfully raise my children in an environment of acceptance, love, and affirmation.

Advancing my career is important for me at this point in life. If I achieve my career goals, I'll have greater financial stability and peace of mind. To make these things happen, I intend to set certain standards for my professional life and only make strategic compromises. I want to keep myself accountable for my career instead of falling back into the habit of blaming others for my disappointments. I cannot control everything that influences my career, but I can persist after setbacks and focus on what I can do to improve my skills and increase my value. This means that I should seek continuing education and make time for networking with colleagues. I must put myself out there to connect with opportunities.

My rough childhood has inspired me to choose a career in teaching. I accept the challenges of this occupation with grace because children need positive adults in their lives. For some children, a caring adult within their community can give them hope when things aren't good at home. I believe that this purpose helps me be content with my life and heal the wounds from my past.

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Upon much reflection and consultation with those who know me best, I accept that my stubbornness is both my greatest strength and weakness. To take advantage of it as a strength, I intend to volunteer with my local legal aid office, where my experience as a paralegal can benefit people who lack resources to cope with legal challenges. Legal issues often require patience and persistence, and these two traits are reflected in my stubborn nature.

Although I value my introverted nature, I intend to experience more human connections in my life. I recognize the value of stretching myself and interacting with more people. To this end, I am setting the goals of joining a book club and hosting dinner parties twice a year.

My whole life I imagined myself with children, and the time has come for me to make family a priority. I plan to devote more time to dating in the hopes of finding lasting love and building a happy, healthy family life in the next five years.

My personal vision statement places faith at its center. Attending religious activities gives me a deep sense of spiritual connection with others. I want to learn more about my religion and provide comfort to people in their times of need. As a result, I intend to join a place of worship, attend services, and participate in at least one outreach program.

I see now that I could be in much better financial shape if I had been thoughtful earlier in life. My mission now is to value financial responsibility above impulsive purchases. I make money decisions related to how they benefit me instead of how they provide short-term gratification. This helps me alleviate financial stress and improve my well-being.

My lifetime goal is to master the art of non-judgment. Seeing the best in every living thing and viewing situations gracefully and compassionately is essential. Part of the journey is acknowledging my faults and learning to love myself – flaws and all. I choose to let kindness light my path and appoint empathy as my faultless guide. Spreading joy and understanding is my mission and something I can control. I pray my efforts lighten others’ emotional loads.

Learning to be a mentally healthy, admiringly responsible, financially independent adult will be a journey filled with peaks and valleys. But I can reach the summit by being mindful of my budget and living at or below my means. Not internalizing cultural messages and comparing myself to others on social media is vital to my success. A happy, healthy, stress-reduced life awaits if I adopt these guiding principles and learn to love what I have instead of coveting what I don’t.

Growing up, my parents, teachers, and other kids told me I wasn’t smart enough. But now I realize my learning style didn't mesh with my school's tactics. With dedication and patience, I can conquer any academic goal I set. I will no longer listen to the naysayers. Instead, I’ll take things one step at a time and make progress at my own pace. If I learn to control my thoughts and develop a solid work ethic, my horizons will expand, my reading and writing skills will improve, and from there, I’ll be able to develop fresh and exciting ideas.

I acknowledge that psychological issues, unaddressed toxic trauma, and fraught family dynamics caused me to behave poorly and act selfishly in the past. But it’s a new day, and I give myself permission to move on from the past and treat people better. Nobody is perfect; I will falter at times. But I know if I’m mindful, generous of spirit, and never take advantage of others, my relationships will flourish, and I’ll find happiness rooted in kindness, compassion, and mutual respect.

Are you ready to write your personal vision statement?

Philosophers may argue about the existence of a free will, but the truth is that you have plenty of control over the direction of your life.

The time that you invest in crafting a personal vision statement will keep you grounded amid the endless distractions of life.

As you can see in the personal vision statement examples presented here, your vision doesn't have to follow any particular direction.

Let your heart define your purpose and values, and then use your mind to pursue your values-based goals.

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Insideout Mastery

Create a Life You Love

Personal Vision Statement: The Definite Guide with 11 Inspiring Examples

May 11, 2021 by Mick

Do you want to live your life on your own terms?

If so, then a personal vision statement is what you need.

There are many distracting things in this world. There is just so much opportunity since the world has gone online. And it’s easy to wonder if you’re on the right track.

When you lack clarity, you can feel a little lost .

And when that continues, you might even feel stuck and become frustrated.

That’s why a personal vision statement can help.

When you write such a declaration, you’re generating clarity for yourself. And the statement itself helps you to make decisions that serve you best. 

It’s a simple concept but it helps you to build the future you desire.

In this article, you will learn how to write a personal vision statement in three simple steps. And I’ve also included many personal vision statement examples to inspire you.

So let’s dive in!

What is a Personal Vision?

A personal vision is your outlook on how you want to live and who you want to become. A personal vision statement is a written declaration of your vision. 

You may think this is similar to a personal mission statement . And though there is an overlap between the two, there’s also a difference.

• A personal mission statement explains what you want to achieve. It focuses on your purpose and helps you to set goals and take action.
• A personal vision statement is all about who you want to become in the process. Where do you see yourself in 10 to 20 years? How do you want to change?

These statements combined can generate massive clarity. You can use it to navigate difficult decisions, like should you take that job opportunity?

Here’s an example between a mission and vision statement:

A personal vision statement example could be that you want to make yourself and more people smile. A mission could be to hold a 1.000 comedy show and make 1 million people laugh.

Though perhaps you no longer want to give comedy shows at some point. Say you’ve achieved that goal and want to do something completely different.

Perhaps you want to start a Mexican restaurant. Your mission could change to serve the best tacos in the country. But you could still keep your vision of putting a smile on everyone’s faces.

Do you notice how this personal vision statement could also make your Mexican restaurant unique? 

Why Do You Need a Personal Vision Statement?

Let’s say you don’t clarify your personal vision and simply go through the motions of life. Does that mean you have no vision for what you want your life to look like?

Probably not, right?

Everyone has some values, ideas, and dreams. Yet, if you never generate clarity about what this is to you, it’s difficult to live according to it. Instead, life just drifts you around.

And that’s a common reason for frustration.

Because on one hand, you feel like you’re missing out on something. You feel that you’re not living your life the way you want to. 

At the same time, you don’t understand why you feel that way.

A personal vision statement helps you to avoid that trap. 

First of all, writing one forces you to think about what’s most important to you. This is something that only a minority of people do. And secondly, research shows that a vision statement gave students a sense of direction and responsibility.

A personal vision statement helps you to:

• take responsibility ;
• stay hungry and focused;
• increase your self-awareness ;
• overcome the many distractions in life;
• make better decisions that are good for you in the long run;
• and finally, to build the life you truly desire.

There is a risk in writing a personal vision statement. Because once you’ve got one, you now have to face the truth and be honest with yourself.

That might mean you have to make some important changes. And to step outside your comfort bubble. 

But isn’t it worth a shot? 

Isn’t it worth the risk to try and build a future around what’s most meaningful to you? Isn’t that much better than feeling frustrated because you know there is more to life?

Life is too short and a personal vision statement helps you to navigate and live it.

Personal Vision Statements Examples

If you’re not convinced yet, what’s a better way to convince than through the personal vision statement examples of others?

Take the amazing life story of Richard Branson for example. He is truly living by the vision statement that he has set for his life. He is a great example of how a personal vision helps you to live better.

Some of the personal vision statements examples below are actual statements. Others are extracted from quotes that reveal the vision by which these individuals lived their lives. Here are my favorite ones:

To make people happy. – Walt Disney

To have fun in [my] journey through life and learn from [my] mistakes. – Richard Branson

To be a teacher. And to be known for inspiring my students to be more than they thought they could be.   – Oprah Winfrey

To use my gifts of intelligence, charisma, and serial optimism to cultivate the self-worth and net worth of women around the world. – Amanda Steinberg

To serve as a leader, live a balanced life, and apply ethical principles to make a significant difference. – Denise Morrison

If something is important enough you should try, even if the probable outcome is failure.   – Elon Musk

When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion. – Abraham Lincoln

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style. – Maya Angelou

I shall not fear anyone on Earth. I shall fear only God. I shall not bear ill will toward anyone. I shall not submit to injustice from anyone. I shall conquer untruth by truth. And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering. – Mahatma Gandhi 

To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. – Ralph Waldo Emerson  

How to Write a Personal Vision Statement in 3 Simple Steps

When you first want to write a personal vision statement for your life, you may not know where to start. You might feel overwhelmed when you stare down at an empty piece of paper.

Don’t worry, it’s part of the process.

With the simple three-step approach that I will take you through, you’ll soon have your first version.

Step 1: Do the Research

People always overestimate how much they know about themselves. And therefore, they never ask simple questions that can help them to live their best life.

If you want to build the future you desire, you must clarify what that means:

• What is important to you?
• What interests you?
• What is your mission?
• What are your values?
• What makes you happy?

Take your time to dig into each of those questions. Ponder each of these questions for at least a couple of minutes (if not longer). Try to come up with a couple of points for each of your answers.

After all, if it’s going to be a vision for your life, it should take a bit of time, right?

The more time you spend getting to know yourself and reflecting on what truly matters to you , the easier you’ll find it to draft your personal vision statement.

Step 2: Write an Ugly Draft

What I’ve learned writing over 200 pieces of content is that your first draft sucks.

You desperately want it to be perfect when you write it, but it’s not going to happen. It needs time to fully grow and develop.

What’s more important at first is writing any statement rather than the perfect one. Pour your heart out and write everything that comes to mind. 

Of course, the deeper you dug into yourself in the first step, the easier this process becomes. 

Write your first ugly draft.

What does a good ugly draft look like?

A piece of paper, filled with sentences that won’t make any sense. When you read it anyway, you wonder if you did any better than a toddler could.

But don’t worry. It’s all part of the process.

Step 3: Polishing the Ugly Draft

There are two brain modes when it comes to writing. The first mode is the creation part, which is when you created your first draft. The second mode is the editing part.

These two don’t work at the same time. You’re either creating or editing.

That’s why it’s also a good idea to wait one day between creating and editing your draft.

When you come back the next day, it’s time to polish your draft.

Polishing your draft is about taking a closer look at each of the sentences. Does it serve a purpose? Does it touch the right emotional strings? 

Removing sentences that don’t strike you as important. Design the sentences that do in a way that brings the point across stronger. 

Can you remove any words without changing the meaning of the sentence to you? When you declutter sentences from words that only fill up the page, make the sentences more powerful. 

The editing part is for you to play around with a little bit. 

But keep the goal in mind: you want to write a personal vision statement that empowers you. One that aligns with your life goals .

Don’t worry if other people can extract the meaning or if it’s grammatically correct. Unless that’s what you care about, of course. It’s for you, after all. 

Are you still struggling to craft your statement? Then there are some templates to help you,

Personal Vision Statement Templates

I hope you’ve done your research, written your first draft, and tried to polish it up. 

If you didn’t do that yet, go back to the exercises and do it. 

See what you come up with yourself first before you dive into these templates. It’s a great creative exercise, and often the stuff you come up with yourself is what empowers you the most.

Anyway, let’s assume you’ve done that and still struggle a bit.

Then templates could offer great help.

Though there isn’t a one-set template for everyone, you can use these little pieces as inspiration to draft your own:

• To live [your most important value] and [the second most important value].
• To be [what person you want to be in this world]. 
• To be known for [what you want to be known for]. 
• To use my [your talents and skills] to [the difference you want to make in this world]. 
• To serve as [how you would like to serve others] and [the outcome you desire].
• I’m living my best life when it aligns with [your values]. 
• My mission is to [ your mission statement ]. And I make this happen by [your values].

Use these templates as inspiration for parts of your personal vision statement. But make sure to edit these, so it feels authentic to you . That’s most important.

A personal vision statement takes some time to craft, so take it easy on yourself if you can’t come up with the right one.

Having the first version ready is more important than perfection. Having something can already help you better navigate your life. And then you keep updating the statement over time.

Over time, you might notice that your value statement no longer gives you personal power . Maybe it even has become vague to you. 

That’s because if you live your values, set goals, and take action, you gain self-awareness. And the statement you wrote a while ago may no longer match with the new personal insights you got.

That’s when you want to rewrite your statement.

In general, you want to revise it every so often. The more you learn about yourself, the more powerful your statement becomes and the easier it will be to write.

Also, check out this guide on how to write a personal mission statement .

And if you want guidance on your journey, sign up below to gain more exclusive content like this!

Related articles

• 101 Inspiring Life Goal Examples and How to Set Them for Yourself
• How to Write a Powerful Personal Mission Statement in 6 Easy Steps
• 21 Personal Goal Examples to Inspire You to Set Some this Year

Mick is a personal growth enthusiast and was able to use it to transform his life. He now helps others pursue their dreams, create positive change, and build better lives through self-improvement.

How to Craft an Inspiring Personal Vision Statement

This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to write a compelling personal vision statement that will inspire you toward your Future Self.

Ready to get started?

Let’s dive in …

What is a Personal Vision?

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 Create a Personal Vision Statement?

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 .

4 Reasons Why Many People Struggle With Vision

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.

1 – Cultural Conditioning

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.

2 – Visualization is a Skill

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 .

3 – Fear

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.

4 – Perfectionism

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.

6 Personal Vision Statement Examples

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.

Personal Vision Statement Examples – Professional

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 .

Personal Vision Statement Examples – Personal

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.

Personal Vision Statement Examples – Personal + Professional

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.

5 Qualities of an Effective Personal Vision Statement

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:

• Present tense-oriented
• Focuses on what you want (not what you want to avoid)
• Aspirational
• Uses emotional words that are meaningful to you
• Evokes a clear image in your mind

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.

9 Ingredients for Your Personal Vision Statement

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. 

1) Core Values

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.

2) Primary Interests

What are about five things you enjoy doing the most? What lights you up? What can’t you live without?

3) Areas of Focus

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. )

4) Character Strengths

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. )

5) Aspirational Dreams

If this was your last day on earth, what would you regret not doing, seeing, or creating?

6) Desired Skills

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?

7) Vocational Goals

What are the three to five things you must do to feel fulfilled in your work?

8) Primary Life Goals

What are the key goals you’re committed to achieving in your life? Perhaps within the next five to ten years.

9) Key Virtues

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.

Exercises to Use Before Capturing Your Vision

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.

Exercise #1: Quiet Your Mind with Your Breath

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.

Exercise #2: Connect to Your Heart

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.

Exercise #3: Remember WHY You’re Focus on Vision

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?

4 Steps to Craft Your Personal Vision Statement

Here’s a 4-step process you can use to craft your vision:

Step 1: Collect the necessary discovery process data.

You’ll want to have clarity on at least the first four of the nine ingredients listed above:

• Core values
• Primary interests
• Areas of Focus

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.

Step 2: Block off time and remove unnecessary distractions.

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.

Step 3: Get in the right frame of mind.

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.

Step 4: Craft your personal vision statement.

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 .

Personal Vision Statement Template

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.

Personal Vision Statement FAQ

Here are a few common questions about creating a personal vision statement.

How Long Does It Take to Write Your 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.

When Should You Use Your Life Vision?

Once you have a draft of your personal vision statement, consider reviewing it:

• At the start of the week.
• Sunday night. Take a few minutes to connect with your vision to prime you for the week ahead.
• When you feel lost or confused. When you’re distracted by 10,000 things, pause and review your vision.
• When you feel a part of you questioning the purpose and meaning of your life. Remind yourself that you have created personal meaning. Then, return to your life vision statement.

Review it frequently until it becomes a part of you.

How Do Use Your Personal Vision?

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.

• What do you look like?
• What are you doing?
• As you’re actualizing your vision, how do you feel ?  

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.”

Two Essential Self-Development Tools for Lasting Change

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:

• A personal vision for your Future Self that guides you forward
• A clear set of values that highlight your ideal behavior

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!

Use Sound Tech to Help You Access Your Vision

Music is powerful. But music encoded with biofield technology is a whole lot more powerful.

iAwake Technology’s programs can help you access a state of mind more conducive to realizing your vision.

I’ve used iAwake’s catalog of programs for years.

Download free sample tracks here.

Disclaimer: affiliate link above.

Self-Mastery: How to Break Through Internal Resistance

A Complete Guide to Self-Actualization

The Four Stages of Learning Anything

About the Author

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 .

Learn more >

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4.8 Developing Your Personal Mission and Vision

Learning objectives.

• Determine what mission and vision mean for you.
• Develop some guidelines for developing your mission and vision.

Mission and vision are concepts that can be applied to you, personally, well beyond their broader relevance to the P-O-L-C framework. Personal mission and vision communicate the direction in which you are headed, as well as providing some explanation for why you are choosing one direction or set of objectives over others. Thinking about and writing down mission and vision statements for your life can help provide you with a compass as you work toward your own goals and objectives.

Figure 4.12

Your mission and vision reflect your personal and professional purpose and direction.

Shawn Harquail – Kayak Tour of Mangroves, Lucayan National Park. – CC BY-NC 2.0.

Your Mission and Vision

Note that the development of a personal mission and vision, and then a strategy for achieving them, are exactly the opposite of what most people follow. Most people do not plan further ahead than their next job or activity (if they plan their career at all). They take a job because it looks attractive, and then they see what they can do with it. We advocate looking as far into the future as you can and deciding where you want to end up and what steps will lead you there. In that way, your life and your career fit into some intelligent plan, and you are in control of your own life.

The first step in planning a career is obviously a long-term goal. Where do you want to end up, ultimately? Do you really want to be a CEO or president of the United States, now that you know what it costs to be either one? There are a couple basic parts to this process.

First, set out a bold vision—Jim Collins, author of Good to Great , describes this as a BHAG a big, hairy, audacious goal.

Five guiding criteria for good BHAGs is that they:

• Are set with understanding, not bravado.
• Fit squarely in the three circles of (a) what you are deeply passionate about (including your core values and purpose), (b) what drives your economic logic, and (c) what differentiates you (what you can be the best in the world at).
• Have a long time frame—10 to 30 years.
• Are clear, compelling, and easy to grasp.
• Directly reflect your core values and core purpose.

Second, sketch out your personal values, or “Guiding Philosophy”—a set of core values and principles like your own Declaration of Independence.

Once the vision is set, you have to develop some long-term goal (or goals), then intermediate-term goals, and so on. If you want to be President, what jobs will you have to take first to get there and when do you have to get these jobs? Where should you live? What training do you need? What political connections do you need? Then you have to set up an orderly plan for obtaining the connections and training that you need and getting into these steppingstone jobs.

Finally, you need to establish short-term goals to fit clearly into a coherent plan for your entire career. Your next job (if you are now a fairly young person) should be picked not only for its salary or for its opportunities for advancement but for its chances to provide you with the training and connections you need to reach your long-term goals. The job that is superficially attractive to you because it has a high salary, offers the opportunity for immediate advancement, or is located in a desirable place may be a mistake from the standpoint of your long-term career.

Former business school professor, entrepreneur (founder of www.quintcareers.com), and colleague Randall S. Hansen, PhD, has done a masterful job of assembling resources that aim to help your career, including an excellent five-step plan for creating personal mission statements. With his generous permission, he has allowed us to reproduce his five-step plan—adapted by us to encompass both mission and vision—in this section.

The Five-Step Plan

A large percentage of companies, including most of the Fortune 500, have corporate mission and vision statements (Quint Careers, 2008). Mission and vision statements are designed to provide direction and thrust to an organization, an enduring statement of purpose. A mission and vision statement act as an invisible hand that guides the people in the organization. A mission and vision statement explains the organization’s reason for being and answers the question, “What business are we in?”

A personal mission and vision statement is a bit different from a company mission statement, but the fundamental principles are the same. Writing a personal mission and vision statement offers the opportunity to establish what’s important and perhaps make a decision to stick to it before we even start a career. Or it enables us to chart a new course when we’re at a career crossroads. Steven Covey (in First Things First ) refers to developing a mission and vision statement as “connecting with your own unique purpose and the profound satisfaction that comes from fulfilling it (Covey, 1994).”

A personal mission and vision statement helps job seekers identify their core values and beliefs. Michael Goodman (in The Potato Chip Difference: How to Apply Leading Edge Marketing Strategies to Landing the Job You Want ) states that a personal mission statement is “an articulation of what you’re all about and what success looks like to you (Goodman, 2001).” A personal mission and vision statement also allows job seekers to identify companies that have similar values and beliefs and helps them better assess the costs and benefits of any new career opportunity.

The biggest problem most job seekers face is not in wanting to have a personal mission and vision statement but actually writing it. So, to help you get started on your personal mission and vision statement, here is a five-step mission/vision-building process. Take as much time on each step as you need, and remember to dig deeply to develop a mission and vision statement that is both authentic and honest. To help you better see the process, Professor Hansen included an example of one friend’s process in developing her mission and vision statements.

Sample Personal Mission Statement Development

Past success :

• developed new product features for stagnant product
• part of team that developed new positioning statement for product
• helped child’s school with fundraiser that was wildly successful
• increased turnout for the opening of a new local theater company

Themes: Successes all relate to creative problem solving and execution of a solution.

Core values :

• Hard working
• Industrious
• Problem solving
• Decision maker
• Family-oriented
• Intelligent
• Compassionate
• Contemplative

Most important values:

Most important value:

Identify Contributions :

• the world in general: develop products and services that help people achieve what they want in life. To have a lasting effect on the way people live their lives.
• my family: to be a leader in terms of personal outlook, compassion for others, and maintaining an ethical code; to be a good mother and a loving wife; to leave the world a better place for my children and their children.
• my employer or future employers: to lead by example and demonstrate how innovative and problem-solving products can be both successful in terms of solving a problem and successful in terms of profitability and revenue generation for the organization.
• my friends: to always have a hand held out for my friends; for them to know they can always come to me with any problem.
• my community: to use my talents in such a way as to give back to my community.

Identify Goals :

Short term: To continue my career with a progressive employer that allows me to use my skills, talent, and values to achieve success for the firm.

Long term: To develop other outlets for my talents and develop a longer-term plan for diversifying my life and achieving both professional and personal success.

Mission Statement :

To live life completely, honestly, and compassionately, with a healthy dose of realism mixed with the imagination and dreams that all things are possible if one sets their mind to finding an answer.

Vision Statement :

To be the CEO of a firm that I start, that provides educational exercise experiences to K–6 schools. My company will improve children’s health and fitness, and create a lasting positive impact on their lives, and that of their children.

Step 1: Identify Past Successes. Spend some time identifying four or five examples where you have had personal success in recent years. These successes could be at work, in your community, or at home. Write them down. Try to identify whether there is a common theme—or themes—to these examples. Write them down.

Step 2: Identify Core Values. Develop a list of attributes that you believe identify who you are and what your priorities are. The list can be as long as you need. Once your list is complete, see whether you can narrow your values to five or six most important values. Finally, see whether you can choose the one value that is most important to you. We’ve added “Generating Ideas for Your Mission and Vision” to help jog your memory and brainstorm about what you do well and really like to do.

Step 3: Identify Contributions. Make a list of the ways you could make a difference. In an ideal situation, how could you contribute best to:

• the world in general
• your family
• your employer or future employers
• your friends
• your community

Generating Ideas for Your Mission and Vision

A useful mission and vision statement should include two pieces: what you wish to accomplish and contribute and who you want to be, the character strengths and qualities you wish to develop. While this sounds simple, those pieces of information are not always obvious. Try these tools for generating valuable information about yourself.

• Describe your ideal day. This is not about being practical. It is designed to include as many sides of you and your enthusiasms as possible: creative, competent, artistic, introverted, extraverted, athletic, playful, nurturing, contemplative, and so on.
• Imagine yourself 132 years old and surrounded by your descendants or those descendants of your friends. You are in a warm and relaxed atmosphere (such as around a fireplace). What would you say to them about what is important in life? This exercise is designed to access the values and principles that guide your life.
• Imagine that it is your 70th birthday (or another milestone in your life). You have been asked by national print media to write a press release about your achievements. Consider what you would want your family, friends, coworkers in your profession and in your community to say about you. What difference would you like to have made in their lives? How do you want to be remembered? This is designed to inventory your actions and accomplishments in all areas of your life.

Review your notes for these three exercises. With those responses in mind, reflect on questions 1, 2, and 3 above. Then write a rough draft (a page of any length) of your mission statement. Remember that it should describe what you want to do and who you want to be. This is not a job description. Carry it with you, post copies in visible places at home and work, and revise and evaluate. Be patient with yourself. The process is as important as the outcome. After a few weeks, write another draft. Ask yourself whether your statement was based on proven principles that you believe in, if you feel direction, motivation, and inspiration when you read it. Over time, reviewing and evaluating will keep you abreast of your own development.

Step 4: Identify Goals. Spend some time thinking about your priorities in life and the goals you have for yourself. Make a list of your personal goals, perhaps in the short term (up to three years) and the long term (beyond three years).

Step 5: Write Mission and Vision Statements. On the basis of the first four steps and a better understanding of yourself, begin writing your personal mission and vision statements.

Final thoughts: A personal mission and vision statement is, of course, personal. But if you want to see whether you have been honest in developing your personal mission and vision statement, we suggest sharing the results of this process with one or more people who are close to you. Ask for their feedback. Finally, remember that mission and vision statements are not meant to be written once and blasted into stone. You should set aside some time annually to review your career, job, goals, and mission and vision statements—and make adjustments as necessary.

Key Takeaway

In this section, you learned how to think of mission and vision in terms of your personal circumstances, whether it is your career or other aspects of your life. Just as you might do in developing an organization’s vision statement, you were encouraged to think of a big, hairy audacious goal as a starting point. You also learned a five-step process for developing a personal vision statement.

• How does a personal mission and vision statement differ from one created for an organization?
• What time period should a personal mission and vision statement cover?
• What are the five steps for creating a personal mission and vision statement?
• What type of goals should you start thinking about in creating a personal mission and vision?
• How are your strengths and weaknesses relevant to mission and vision?
• What stakeholders seem relevant to your personal mission and vision?

Covey, S. R. (1994). First Things First . New York: Simon & Schuster.

Goodman, M. (2001). The Potato Chip Difference . New York: Dialogue Press.

Quint Careers, retrieved October 29, 2008, from http://www.quintcareers.com/creating_personal_mission_statements.html . Reproduced and adapted with written permission from Randall S. Hansen. The content of this work is his, and any errors or omissions are our responsibility.

Principles of Management Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.