3 steps to achieving your business vision

Vision: what do you see? 

If you can access it—and act upon it—there is no limit to the business and life you can create for yourself.

The three steps discussed below will provide you with the foundation to put your vision into action.

Sight.  Strategy.  Execution.

Let’s assume that since you’re in business you have a vision of what you want from it. Perhaps it has been a while since you visited it. But it’s there nonetheless.

You can see it. You can feel it.  

Congratulations! You’ve just accomplished one third of the work it takes to see your dream become a reality.

The other two-thirds are strategy and execution. It’s really that simple: know what you want, see what you want and plan the path to get there.

If we look at developing a business as akin to architecture, it’s easy to appreciate the steps.

An architect must visualize what is to be built.  Some architects might collaborate with clients – bringing clarity to their vision – while others may be sought after for their ability to conjure up visions that are uniquely their own.  

Either way, the next step is to get that vision down on paper as a plan. The plan is then given to capable craftspeople who get the work done. 

Eventually, with proper planning, permits and attention to order and detail, the building becomes a reality.

You are the architect.

You may feel that your task is more complicated since you're also IN the business dealing with customers and competition; but creating this strategy is the foundation of working ON your business.

You can only work ON your business once you have your design on paper.

Be strategic

The skills of strategy and execution are at the heart of management.

If you want to be successful in your business, you must learn these skills. They're not difficult, but you may have to challenge yourself to overcome habits or beliefs that have been ingrained through conditioning.   

An easy way to do this is to take an e-learning course or online seminar, study at your local school, read management books, or all of the above. Whichever method you choose, decide to consciously put yourself in a position where you can learn what you don’t already know.

You can become an excellent leader and an effective manager; but unless you’re first able to communicate the results you want others to help you achieve, your people will always be floating adrift without any map to guide them.

Becoming a conscious dreamer

At EMyth, our clients always start with their vision. 

And, though many initially feel that it is difficult to define, it is the soul of  simplicity.

It is like becoming a child again. Finding ways to go deep inside yourself and imagine what’s possible.

Vision is powered by imagination. It is about dedicating time to daydream.

Find some time apart, alone, away from the computer and telephone, away from the iPod and cell phone, away from the everyday tactical distractions of your business. Away! Away! Away!

Find a place where you can turn off the world, and turn your imagination back on – in the woods, near the water, at a park, your backyard, the library, a coffee shop – somewhere that you can regularly go without any of the stuff that keeps your practical mind occupied.

Envision your business. See it from the outside – separate from you.  

Don’t worry about writing it down yet; see it in your mind first. Imagine what kind of business would most support the life you want.

Every one of you reading this has the capacity to become a dreamer of epic proportions.

What else is an entrepreneur but someone who dreams freely and then turns that dream into a reality?

You can't learn to imagine

You can learn to strategize, plan, organize, orchestrate and execute, but you cannot learn to imagine.

You don’t learn it as much as you unlearn and disconnect from everything that is keeping you from it.  

You create the conditions that make it possible for your imagination to run free.  Can you feel how amazing the power of that can be?

If you begin with the “big picture” of imagining what your business would look and feel like when it is complete, you will have set the stage and found the power to sketch in the picture of the infrastructure.  

You'll then be open to envision the way a sales system should look – or the structure of a marketing campaign.

The best way to begin realizing your dream is to visualize the result you want to create. It doesn’t have to be completely clear in the beginning, but as you work with it, it will begin to come into view.

Here are the steps

1. Become a conscious dreamer. Intentionally make room for yourself to imagine the company of your dreams.
2. Learn to be a manager. Apply yourself to the skills necessary to be a good leader. Learn to strategize and plan.
3. Become a force of execution. This will support your vision’s realization.

Remember: if you can see it, you can build it.

Imagine what’s possible. Never settle for anything less than the full realization of your dream. Make this the year that you find your overpowering vision; then begin the process of creating it!