Five Proven Ways to be a Confident and Empowered Woman Series Part Three – Live Your Life with Intention With a Personal Vision

"Vision without action is a dream …

Action without vision merely passes the time …

Action with vision can change the world!

Joel Barker ~ The Power of Vision

This article is Part Three* of my six-part series on how to be a confident and empowered woman leader. Every woman leader needs a compelling written personal vision to guide her career and life. A compelling vision she can use to make decisions aligned with her intentions and one to get her back on track when things go sideways.

*Note – this article is longer to provide more context and history about the power of vision ??

Here are some questions to concern wherever you are in your career:

1.????Am I living my purpose with passion?

2.????What kind of legacy do I want to leave on the world?

3.????How do I want to be known as I move through my career?

4.????What is my compass to get my back on course when I fall off course?

5.????What is your" why?"

Having a personal leadership vision can answer all these questions and more!

Creating a personal leadership vision is a way to create a roadmap you can use throughout your career to keep you on course. Your vision statement is your guide and your plan for success. Your vision statement is one of the tools you can use to become the kind of leader you want to be

Everyone experiences career ups and downs, and I certainly did (See Part One of this series on my near career and life-ending crash and burn)

The important thing is to have something you can count on to adjust when needed and keep you heading in the right direction. There's an old saying - it's not how far you fall that counts … It's how high you bounce back.??

In the first article of this series, I shared my almost career and life-ending crash and burn from "rock star" to "rock bottom." When I was sitting on that bathroom floor in tears and sweat, I realized I had stopped living my vision and life with intention. I got lost trying to be the best of everything to everyone else but me!

Refocusing on my personal vision enabled me to get off the floor and back on track for good! I decided to use my personal vision to guide my professional and personal life. Every decision I make, every job I take, and every client I engage with must align with my vision to "make a difference and empower people to be the best they can be!"

Having a personal vision also helps you live your life with intention. Living with intention ensures our behaviors align with the kind of person we want to be known and what we value. Therefore, it is essential to understand how you want to live your life in work and life.

It's time to invest in yourself, create a personal vision to guide your life, and invest your superpower in you to live your life with intention!

Where did the concept of vision begin?

The concept of vision dates back hundreds of years when researchers tried to understand why some small countries or cities were far more successful than others throughout history, even when they had fewer resources than much larger nations or towns at the time. As a result, countries like Rome, Greece, Denmark, the UK, and even the US have become world superpowers with the power of a vision.

Other countries were bigger, wealthier, and had access to more resources. So how did a small country like Denmark conquer the world? The leaders at the time had a compelling vision of success that inspired them to become a superpower when all the odds were against them.

In social settings, you find great leaders like Martin Luther King, who had a compelling vision to make the world a better place. We all remember Martin Luther King's famous I have a dream speech – "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

In business, consider Apple's vision to "change the way the world worked" when they were a company of fewer than four people working in a garage. Microsoft had a vision in 1976 of "A computer on every desk and every home," when most computers were massive, took up an entire room, and only a few existed outside the corporate world

What is a vision statement?

A vision is a statement that is fundamentally better than what exists today. It's a picture or an image of a future state that countries, organizations, and people use to inspire action and stay on course. A vision statement represents who you are, what you stand for, and the legacy you want to leave on the world.

A vision statement is:

1.????A statement of the kind of leader you want to be

2.????A future desired state that is fundamentally better than today

3.????A roadmap to guide your "why."

4.????A signpost to keep you on track

5.????A compass to guide you to align your intentions with your actions

How do I create my personal vision?

Let me describe the process I used to create my vision statement to help you get started. Then, please feel free to modify and adjust this process to work for you!

1.????Imagine you're going to be interviewed on your favorite show or podcast.

2.????Go to your favorite place that brings you joy and clears your mind.

3.????Take your favorite pen and a journal, and find a comfortable place to sit

4.????Close your eyes and imagine yourself on your favorite show or podcast surrounded by all your friends, family, co-workers, bosses, and peers

5.????Imagine your close loved ones describing you as a leader five years from today.

6.????What words or adjectives are they using to represent you??

7.????Write down all the words, and over the next couple of weeks, return to this list of words, add to the list, or maybe take away a few

8.????When you are happy with your list, now take those words to write your personal vision statement.

I repeated these steps twice a week for about a month. Finally, at the end of the month, I decided to create my vision statement, which is …

"I am a strong, confident, and compassionate leader who makes a difference and empowers people to be the best they can be in any endeavor they choose!"

Now, what?

Like anything in life – If you don't use it, you lose it!

Here is an example of how I used my vision to make a challenging career decision. When I worked for Microsoft, I had a chance to take an international assignment.

I was offered two positions: running the Business Excellence Team in EMEA and living in Germany. The second position was as the Customer and Partner Experience Team in Asia and living in Singapore.

Both positions were at an equal level, had equal pay, were part of a great team, and worked for an incredible manager.

The deciding fact was my vision. In EMEA, I would be a small fish in a large pool and part of the bigger EMEA team of over a thousand people. In Asia, I would be a bigger fish in a small pool of less than a hundred people.

Where could I fulfill my vision? I chose Asia, and I moved to Singapore in August 2004; it was my life's best decision.

I called my husband from our big Sales Conference in Miami to tell him we had four weeks to pack the house and move. His only question was – "Do I pack snowshoes or flip-flops?"

Here are five things to do to use your vision to empower you to be the best you can be:

1.????Please write it down and put it in visible places where you'll see it every day

a.????Your office, the bathroom mirror, or screen saver

2.????Please save it to a personal folder for future reference

3.????Use it to make career or life decisions

a.????Ask yourself which choice best fits your vision.

4.????When you find yourself off-center or off-course, refer to your vision to get back on track

The most important thing about having a personal vision statement is it will empower you to become the kind of leader you want to be. It will help set you in the right direction, wherever you are in your career. It will keep you on the course when the going gets tough,?

Next week is Part Four – Put Yourself #1 on Your Things-to-Do-List