4 Steps to Create Your Personal Vision Statement

Introduction

In previous posts, we discussed a personal vision statement and its benefits and gave you some examples. If you have not read it, you can check it out here. 

In this post, we will talk about the steps to creating your vision statements. It will be the last post of our personal vision statement series.

4 Steps to Create Your Personal Vision Statement

Creating a personal vision statement can seem complex, especially if you need help figuring out where to start. So we will lay out the steps for you. You can go through and execute them at your own pace. Here they are:

Figure out what you want.

Writing down your life goals will be the first step in creating your own vision statement. What do you want? Do you want to start a business that makes millions of dollars? Do you want to go into space? A painter? A parent who stays at home?

Before you do anything else, you need to make this list. Start by coming up with ideas. Get a piece of paper and a pen (preferably not a computer) and write down everything you want to do in your life. Write everything you can think of. Don’t hold back or stifle yourself.

It’s okay if you can’t do all these things simultaneously. Give it some thought. Keep the list with you for a few days, and add to it when you think of something else. Keep going until you feel like you’re done.

Again, don’t worry about what other people would put on their lists. Everyone is different and unique. Everyone has their own goals. Even if you have a twin, your life goals will differ from everyone else’s. That is normal and what you should expect.

Next, go down this list and give each item some thought. Is this something that you want? Or is it something you think you want or think you should want? Cross off these last few things right away.

The only thing left is to list the things you want to do. Which ones are most important to you? Some of them will pull you in more strongly than others. Put an asterisk next to these.

Afterward, review the list and consider how well your goals fit together. Some of them go against each other or can only be done at one time. For example, you can’t simultaneously become a well-known actor and an astronaut.

That’s where it gets tricky. Now is the time to decide. You’ll have to make hard choices here. What do you want the most? Which would you give up to get to the others? Cross out the ones that won’t work. You have to do it, even though it will hurt.

When you’re done, write down the goals that made it on a new sheet of paper. It is where your vision statement starts.

Figure out your skills, strengths, and weaknesses.

The second step in making your personal vision statement is to write down your strengths and skills and think about how they relate to what you want to do with your life. It’s time to pull out your pen and paper once more.

It’s time for another round of ideas. What are your best qualities? Write everything down that comes to mind. Don’t judge yourself; don’t hold back because you don’t know what to do or are afraid.

Are you strong (physically or mentally)? Stubborn? Independent? Do you think for yourself? Can you help people get along well? Are you brilliant? Empathic? So well-organized? You have a list of strengths, just like everyone else. Only stop once you’ve thought of everything on this list.

The same thing will happen next with your skills. Make a list of all the skills you can think of, especially those related to the goals you wrote down in step one. What skills do you already have that will help you get there? How many of these are ready to go, and how many must be fixed?

Now, take another look at the list of goals. What strengths must a person have to reach each of these goals? Go down the list and look at each item. Don’t rush through this; take your time. When you’re done, do it again and list the skills you’ll need to reach these goals.

You might have already guessed what will happen next. You’re going to compare the two lists you made: one of your strengths and skills and the other of the ones you need to reach all of your goals.

Your weaknesses are the things that set you apart from the two. You need to work on these things if you want to reach all of your goals. Mark all of these flaws with a circle.

If you want, you can add to your vision statement that you will work on or improve some or all of these weaknesses. You don’t have to, but if you don’t, you should keep the list close because you will have to work on these things to reach your goals at one point.

When you’re done with this step, put the lists you made aside (but keep them handy for later) and move on to the next step.

Identify your values.

Almost everything is set up for you to write your vision statement. You’ve written down your goals and made a list of your strengths and the things you need to improve. The next step is to figure out what your most important values are. You can check out this post for more tips on how to do this.

Like steps 1 and 2, this step will give everyone a different answer. There is no wrong answer, so don’t worry or get upset. You only have to decide what’s most important to you, not what other people or even you think should be important.

You’ll need your pen and paper once more. At the top, write “My Values.” What’s the most important thing to you in the world? Your most important goal, the something you work so hard for, the one rule you always follow, the standard by which you measure everything else in your life.

It’s a hard thing to do. It might take a little thought. Or maybe you know what it is right away. If so, you’re a lucky person. The rest of us need some time to think about it.

The answer, when you find it, could be simple or complicated. Maybe it’s the Golden Rule. Taking care of your family could be one. Some people care about making money, while others care about making a difference. Some people write things like “love” or “care.”

The most important part of this process is being honest with yourself. Once more, there’s no wrong answer. No one else matters but you. Your responses are private and should show who you really are. If they don’t, your statement of vision won’t be real.

Write down your second and third essential values once you know the answer. These could also take you a while. You might even find two or three of them are the same height, which is also fine.

Now, write down any other things that are very important to you. Only write down a few to ensure the issue is clear. You want your vision statement to include your most important value. Depending on who you are, you should do your second and third most important things, and maybe a few others as well.

You’ll be ready to write your vision statement when you’re done with this exercise.

Bring everything together.

You are nearly done. You’re at the last and most challenging step: putting everything together into a coherent statement. If you’ve done the first three steps carefully and honestly, you should be able to write a personal vision statement that will move and inspire you.

Get a fresh piece of paper. Write down everything you’ve thought so far that should be in your vision statement. That is, write down your most important goals, values, and any strengths or skills you want. All of these things make up the core of your vision statement.

Play around with these words to make drafts of your vision statement. Start a sentence with one of the phrases below, and keep writing until you’ve said everything you want to say.

Your vision statement could be as short as one sentence or as long as a short paragraph.

Vision Statement Opening Words

Here are some opening words that you can use in your personal vision statement:

• “I am…”
• “I want…”
• “My purpose/mission/vision is….”
• “My life will show….”
• “To…”
• “I will…”
• “I won’t….”

Try more than one set of these first words. Try out a few and play with them. Make four or five drafts of what your vision is. Use first-person verbs that are active in all of them. That means you should use “I [verb]” as much as possible.

Spend at least as much time on this as you did on the first three steps. Make several drafts of your vision statement, starting with the exact words. Use similar and opposite words. You can add things and take things away.

Try out different lengths, types of sentences, speeds, and tones. Make drafts that sound as different as possible but still show that you believe the same things.

From these drafts, you can come up with the perfect vision statement if you’re very lucky or good with words. If not, keep working on drafts until you get tired or fed up. 

Put the task away for a day or two, and then read over your drafts again. Circle the things you like the most. Cross out the things you don’t want. You can build your final drafts around the bits and pieces you want.

Start a new set of drafts and only use the phrases you circled in the first set. Then do this repeatedly until you have a personal vision statement that works for you. When you’re done, you’ll know it.

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed our article on how to create personal vision statements. Vision statements help you identify not just what you want to do but how you want to do it, who you want to be, and all the reasons you want to stay on the path. 

This article and others in our personal vision statement collection are a great place to start for anyone looking to create vision statements for themselves. 

We hope you create a vision statement that resonates with you and motivates you to keep moving forward!

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