Last time I wrote about the importance your Intentions have on the Outcome you desire.

Hopefully I made it clear your Outcomes aren’t the whole thing and neither are the Intentions to which they are related if what I suggested as a way of operating was to have any practical value.

To put it more simply, the bigger the Intention and Outcome, the less chance of your ‘enterprise’, which they define, being put into action and carried to realisation or fulfilment.

As I said, there are two stages before you or I start to set our intention – the Vision (or Dream for those using the American Dictionary) and what I describe as the Strategy, which is a means of breaking down the vision into smaller, bite-sized chunks.

Now you might be under the impression that a Vision or Dream is whatever it says on the tin and may well just exist inside your head.

I’m sure this is the case for many people (some very prominent in the world).

But there’s more to it than that, much more.

For your Vision, to give you the power you need to implement it, there are some rules.

First, it must be fully thought through and be subject to change and revision, you could call it editing, before you can use it to create the effective strategy or strategies you’ll need before you have the remote possibility of implementing it.

It also has to have a timeframe.

I’m not talking specific dates here, although it may be useful if you have a target date which is personally meaningful, such as an anniversary of some sort.

There are three main timeframes which work effectively.

Three, five or ten years, although sometimes a shorter (one year) or longer (25 year) period may make sense to you. In a higher or lower level of detail respectively.

Second, and this is most important of all, and absolutely essential if what you have in mind is going to happen in reality –

it must be written down, not typed, although you can type it up later, (in my case for ease of reading!)

You must write it by hand.

Whether you do it on paper or on an electronic device using an electronic pencil is up to you, but it must be handwritten.

(There is science behind this, but I’m not going to go into it now.)

Your vision is personal to you. It’s not some sort of corporate mission statement or strap line.

It should be no more than one or two sides of A4, depending on the size of your writing.

It shouldn’t be more than about 500 words, or less than 200, (plus or minus 100 in either case).

If very short, 100 words or less, it’s probably an Intention, and if very long, then it’s either a combination of visions, or you’re going into too much detail, which will make it difficult to bring it into reality, to bring into being.

Because you’re going to break it down into intentions, it can be less specific than these, but it must be written at a level of clear specificity rather than being too general.

Now here’s the final and very important rule. Your Vision MUST be written in the PRESENT TENSE. No “I will”, always “I am”. Write as if you’ve been in a time machine and are at the date when your Vision, whatever timeframe, is complete. Start by stating the date, such as “It is now July 2029 and I am . . .”

There is no compromise on this the whole thing just will not work if your Vision isn’t written in the present tense at the time it is due to be completed.

Is this beginning to sound complicated or look complicated? Something your vision should not be, by the way. If so, then maybe you need some help in putting it together.

I learned how to create my first proper Vision at a three-day event in Baltimore but I’m not suggesting you do that. Rather, book a free call with me for 30 minutes to discuss how you can proceed and how I might be able to help.

The thing is,

Without a defined vision for your life, all aspects of it, you’ll just go on wishing and hoping, going with the flow, even if you have ‘plans’ and really get nowhere.

Take the action now. Remember: Vision – Strategy – Intentions – Outcomes – Goals – Plans – Activity.

The first Action is to write your Vision statement.

Or if you already have one, review it to see if it meets the criteria.