You have gone through a visioning process. You have identified the most important areas of your life and how you want these areas to be in the future. As an everyday visionary, how do you organize your daily life to be aware of opportunities when they present; and to have the time to do things that support your vision?
A very powerful and simple time-management tool is to use your time first on what is most important in your life. Stephen Covey, a time-management expert, suggests putting “First Things First”. This means prioritizing your time first to activities that are the most important to you1. Your visions are very important to you, and fit into the “First Things First” area of your time. Covey tells a story about attending a time-management seminar where the presenter used the following example to illustrate this idea.
The presenter sat a large-mouth gallon jar on a table in front of the room. He set a pile of fist-sized rocks next to the jar. He began putting rocks in the jar until the rocks filled the jar to the top. The presenter asked the group, “Is the jar full?” Everyone looked at the jar and said, “Yes.”
He then pulled out a bucket of pea-sized gravel from under the table. He poured the gravel into the jar and shook the jar so the gravel would fill in all of the spaces between the large rocks. He then asked, “Is the jar full?” The group was now on to the presenter, and responded that the jar probably can hold more.
The presenter then produced a container of sand. He poured the sand into the jar. The sand filled all of the spaces between the rocks and the gravel. The presenter asked again, “Is the jar full?” The group replied with a resounding, “No.” Lastly, the presenter brought out a pitcher of water and poured a fair amount of water into the jar.1
So, what is the point of this example? One point you could make from the example is that you can usually fit something more into your life. However, the important lesson from the example is that if you don’t put the big rocks in first, you would have filled the jar with other things and never gotten the big rocks into the jar at all. Trying to cram more into our schedule is an easy trap to get into. As an everyday visionary, it is not the quantity of what is done, but that what is done — is what is most important.
We live in a fast-paced world with many demands upon us. Most of the time, there seems to always be something urgent and pressing that we need to be doing in our jobs or at home. Being an everyday visionary requires looking for tools that can help keep us on track toward our visions. When you identify your visions as a “big rocks” you will more likely notice an opportunity and have the time to take action when it shows up.
How to use the “big rocks” idea in your life:
Use the Everyday Visionary Workbook to arrive at what are the important things in your life. Put these things at the top of your “To Do” list or schedule specific time every week in your day timer as you would any other appointment like a doctor appointment or meeting.
Click here to obtain Everyday Visionary information and tools.
Notes
1 S. Covey, R. Merrill, R. Merrill, First Things First (New York: Simon & Shuster, 1994).
I will use these ideas to help me be more visionary in my daily life—thanks!
— Beth · May 3, 10:30 AM · #
There are so many choices to make each day how can i make sure i’m doing what is most important?
— Colt · Nov 28, 05:43 PM · #
Colt,
Before getting out of bed, take a moment to think about what is most important to you overall or in an area of your life. Turn that into an easy to remember statement. When a choice comes up during the day, Say that statement to yourself. If you take action based upon what is most important, you have the best chance of having an outcome that works for you.
I’d also recommend doing the process outlined in the Everyday Visionary Workbook that you can get on this website. You will then have a purpose statement that is well-grounded in what is most important to you for all the choices you need to make.
— David Chorpenning · Nov 30, 10:11 AM · #
Connect your vision to what is most important
—your purpose.
“You can have anything you want—if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.”
—Abraham Lincoln
A successful vision embodies your purpose. When your life is connected to your purpose, you are in alignment with one of the highest qualities of being human.5 Margaret Wheatley wrote this about meaning in our lives: “But by far the most powerful force of attraction in … our individual lives is meaning.” She goes on to say, “The call of meaning is unlike any other, and we would do well to spend more time … listening for the deep wells of purpose that nourish all of us.”6
When you know your purpose, you become inspired. Inspiration is a feeling that motivates you to look for opportunities and to persevere when obstacles arise. Inspiration is a force that comes from knowing your purpose that will give you the physical, mental, and emotional support to stay the course toward your vision.
Note:M. Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World, 2nd ed. (San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 1999), 132-133.
— David Chorpenning · Dec 9, 10:08 AM · #
Like me, you are an Everyday Visionary. You are creating what is happening in your life every moment of the day. At some point, you have thought about how you wanted your life to be in some area of your life and it happened: perhaps a desire for a certain job, relationship, place to live, or travel. If this has happened to you, you might not have thought much about why things turned out the way they did. Perhaps you hadn’t realized that deciding you preferred a particular future was instrumental in arriving at that future instead of someplace else. The point is, you have experienced wanting something to happen—and it did. This is what being an Everyday Visionary is all about.
The trick is to remember that you are visionary each day. If you’re not living the life you most want, it is because you have not made your desired future conscious. Once you make the connection that you are an Everyday Visionary, you will begin to think of yourself as more powerful, creative, and courageous.
You are constantly imagining what is going to happen or what you are going to do next. That can be as simple as, “What am I going to have for breakfast?” Thinking about breakfast precedes bringing together the resources—eggs, toast, coffee—and taking the actions necessary to make that happen. At some point in the future, minutes or hours from when you imagined breakfast, you are sitting at the table experiencing the satisfaction of the breakfast that you envisioned earlier. What you imagine or vision can be as mundane as breakfast or as grand as changing the world.
A vision precedes the actions that you take to bring about a desired future. Being an Everyday Visionary does not have to mean having a big house or financial independence, though that is possible. Being an Everyday Visionary is about creating a great life where you feel happier, successful and fulfilled every day.
Be an Everyday Visionary today!
Write down a short-term vision you have for your life (for today or for the next thirty days).
Write down a long-term vision you have for your life (a year or more from now).
Find a way to remind yourself of these visions regularly. For example, say your vision before you get out of bed in the morning or before you go to sleep at night. Write your vision in a place where you will see it every day. Ask a friend to check in with you about your vision.
— David Chorpenning · Dec 17, 07:17 AM · #