Are you struggling to create your vision in life? You are not alone. These are the 3 simple techniques that will help you craft your vision.

“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”

--Helen Keller

What is written on your gravestone?

What is the content of your eulogy?

How full is your Wikipedia entry?

I have been asked that question so many times.?

Each time, I tried to come up with a different answer.?

The truth is that I was coming with answers on the fly.?

Because I was more lost than a needle in a haystack in the middle of a storm.

What Is the vision you want to bring in life?

This is the question I have struggled most of my life to answer consistently.

We all face this question in many shapes or forms.

The real question is whether or not we have a North Star helping us navigate through the storms of life.

“I feel like a lost boat wandering through the ocean of life, as time flies.” is my answer when I finally admitted that I was lost.

2017 was my epiphany year because I was far from my thirties and getting to my forties.

I would love to have had the following techniques below to help shape the vision of the life I wanted to experience.

By trial and error, I was applying them unknowingly.

What is my vision in life??

Before I share with you my vision, let me first share the following techniques that could help you create your vision.

A small disclaimer:?

Like everything in life, there is not one single path to arrive at your destination. This is one of many paths that you could take to create your vision.?

I love the simplicity of these techniques because they are easy to implement. If done correctly, you can undoubtedly come with an actual vision.

Now that we have cleared the air let's dive in.

Here are those simple yet powerful techniques:

• The gravestone technique,
• The funeral technique,
• The Wikipedia technique.

Yes, I know what you may be thinking: Really?

Please bear with me because I had the same initial reaction.?

The destination is worth the journey. And you will thank me later.

THE GRAVESTONE TECHNIQUE - Picture your gravestone. We all spend our lives trying to get the richest and long resume possible.

Yet, there is not that much place in your gravestone. You have the 2 most important dates of your life separated by a dash.?

Make sure that that dash is full of meaning.?

What would you like to be carved on your gravestone??

For me, I would like the following: A Father, A Student of life, a Human.

THE FUNERAL TECHNIQUE - Picture your funeral. Imagine all the people that will attend. They are sitting. On the stage, one of them is reading your eulogy.

All your life will be summarized in a 10 minutes speech if you are lucky. Maybe there will be only the person doing the eulogy in the room. Maybe there will be millions of people participating virtually through the Metaverse.

What would you like the content of that eulogy to be??

For me, I imagine something like this:?

“As he is now back to his God, he left this world with a smile. He enjoyed simple things.?

He tried to improve himself to the best of his abilities. He always strived to give more than he took.?

He has had his ups and downs. He was a social being on the one hand. Yet, he loved spending time alone with himself.

He always saw the bright side of people and life by default. He knew that he would meet deception now and then with such a mindset.?

Yet the price to pay for worrying and seeing the dark side of people was too high for a life that short.

He loves things to be short and straightforward. He was a storyteller, eager to tell his own story with his own words.

He saw the power of empowering others by being their griot. He will be missed.

He is now part of the new energy of the universe, blending the light of his smile to the highness of his Creator.

Ahmadou aka Mad, Rest In Power as someone who lived in peace.”

THE WIKIPEDIA TECHNIQUE - Picture that you have an entry in Wikipedia.? Imagine all the things people will write about you.

There is an African proverb that reads:?

“Soap cannot clean itself.”

Now your life will be summarized in that single Wikipedia entry.?

What would you like your Wikipedia page to look like?

I imagine my page with a picture of me smiling.?

I imagine some entries about some quotes that I said, especially this one:

“Don’t live your life through expenses. Live your life through experiences.”

I imagine my journey from Senegal to France described based on the articles I wrote.?

I imagine some books that I wrote. Mainly I guess the entry of that bestseller book about my short stories.

I imagine all the people I have inspired and who will live to be more than I was.?

I imagine some contributions to the Afropeans moving forward. I guess being compared to Paulette Nardal, Leopold Sedar Senghor, and Aimé Césaire for my contribution to the Afropeanism movement, like their contribution to the Négritude movement.

I imagine some entries about other people’s stories that I helped tell in TV Shows, movies, novels, and more.

I imagine being called the husband of my wife because she has been more than me.

I imagine being called my sons' father because they have topped all my life achievements with grace and humility.

If you are writing my Wikipedia page, I am thankful for your time and energy. I hope that the entries above will make it to the final cut.

I encourage you to perform this exercise and share with your friends and family the results. You are not obliged to go as far as me in this article.

I did it because I found the exercise so therapeutic.?

Now I can answer the question about my life vision.

What would I like to be carved on my gravestone?

Ahmadou, aka Mad Diallo, 1980 - 2081, A Father, A student of life, A human.

What would you like the content of that eulogy to be?

The short version: A simple adventurer of life, always paying it forward with a smile.?

What would I like my Wikipedia page to look like?

I want a page that reflects the power of simplicity and living life in the present moment.

As I was doing this exercise, I came to the striking conclusion: my life has nothing to do about what I have.

Material possessions, wealth, or fame do not drive me.?

I am all about the experiences that I will leave behind me and bring into the after universe.?

My life is all about what I can share.?

Of course, this exercise is not a one-shot. It is one of many iterations of it.?

At various moments of my life, I will use the 3 following techniques:

• The gravestone technique,
• The funeral technique,
• The Wikipedia technique.

When I put all the 3 above answers together, I came up with the following vision:

“I, Ahmadou aka Mad, am a Human adventurer striving to add more to all Human beings to the best of my ability with simplicity and humility.”

If you find this article of value to you, please like it and share it within your sphere of influence.

#Dare2Care #Dare2Share

#BIOS #BringInyourOwnSoul #LeadHeartship #Leadership?

You can read my previous article on 100 articles in 100 straight weeks: my 10 favorite African proverbs that I live by every single day in accordance with my 10 life values.

Photo by Karina lago on Unsplash