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Resources-Career: Visioning vs Goal Setting

Happy Monday!

I mentioned in my last ezine that
I recently re-created my Vision Board. It's hanging up in my office
where I can see it every day; it's fab. Having my Vision Board front
and center keeps me focused on my goals and priorities. I learned
an important distinction between visioning and goal-setting in a
teleclass a few weeks ago that I wanted to share with you.

Here's the difference…

Visioning:
Visioning is pure dreaming. It's allowing yourself to look at your life
from a big picture perspective, asking “What do I want to have in my
life in the future? Who do I want to be? What people do I want to have
around me?” This goes for anything – from tangible things you may want
like a a boat or a trip to Bali, to less tangible things like help with
your business or to serve on the board of a nonprofit you are
passionate about. If it's something you want and it gets you jazzed, it
should be part of your vision. Visioning is playful and inspiring.

To create your vision:

  1. Give yourself lots of mental space to picture what you want in your life
  2. Think out of the box
  3. Have fun with it. Imagine it as vividly as you possibly can, down to how it will feel to have these things.

Two important points – visions don't have time frames and you don't worry about how you are going to achieve them.
You just picture them, period. Visioning is a helpful tool because it
not only provides clarity about what you want, but it also gets you “in
the flow” – excited and motivated to work towards these things.

Goal setting:
Setting goals is the down to earth, nuts and bolts planning. It's
identifying what you want to achieve this week, this month or this
year. Goals have a specific time frame, action steps to achieving them,
and they include the "how" – how you are going to achieve them.

To
develop your goals, you need to make sure they are specific,
measurable, tangible, realistic and a challenge for you. They must have
a deadline.

While you can use your
Vision Board to identify what your goals are, visioning is nothing
without action. You have to take action, in the form of setting goals,
to achieve what is on your Vision Board.

To achieve your goals I suggest using both visioning and goal setting together. If you need help with goal setting, contact me for a complimentary consultation.

Have a great week!

Hallie Crawford
Atlanta Career Coach