Thinking forward into my future scares the crap out of me. And using declarative present tense sentences about my future life...well I may have just pooped my pants. However, at the same time it gives me a crazy sense of exhilaration and excitement.Knowing that you have the power to control your destiny with some hard work and your blood, sweat and tears is pretty dang inspiring. The notion of the world being your oyster is almost overwhelming.
But what do I really want?
In Senge's exercise of discovering our personal vision, finding the end result was not as nearly as easy as I thought.
The first time I only made it through the first three steps of the exercise.
First, we went about determining the way we want to exist in our future selves. That alone was just a little frightening. Next came the reflection on the vision component. When I chose my declarative statement of what I would be doing I was a little stuck. The way I envision my future is through a series of steps. I complete one step then envision the next. I'm a one-step-at-a-time kind of girl. Envisioning that final stepping stone was slightly difficult because I also recognize that just like the "Goosebumps" books I read in elementary school, our final result could change with just a simple decision to go to page 54 rather than 72.
But that's not to say I don't make goals. Before I dive into anything whether it be athletics, school or work I always take the time to write out goals. I have immediate, mid-term, and long term goals. This has been especially crucial in my athletics career. I have a special journal that I carry with me almost always. This journal is filled with every past season's goals and times for every race I've ever competed in. When I was attempting to break five minutes in the mile last year not only did I write my finish time of 4:58 in my journal for my season peak, but I had sticky notes posted EVERYWHERE. In my dorm, on my mirror, in my locker, on my desktop, my screen saver on my phone...when I say everywhere, I mean it.
Not only did I have my mile time goal, but I had the splits calculated as to how I would achieve it. Every 400 was calculated down to the second, every 200 was broken down to milliseconds. I had a goal and a plan as to how I was going to achieve it. The hard part was over right? Ha! If only it were that easy...this is just the beginning...
Anyone can write down times on a neon post-it, but not everyone can follow through with them.
It takes courage, perseverance, determination and a hell of a lot of dedication. You cannot be afraid of the inevitable pain. As an athlete you know that pain will come, it's just your choice of whether you want to cross that threshold and embrace it.
The same goes with being a leader. In my experience I always have goals. I think calling them goals rather than a "vision" is less scary to me. In my position as a leader I also break it down in the immediate, mid-term and long-term goals. Additionally, not only do I write the goals, but I verbalize them and make them known. When working with a team, the goals are formulated as a group and everyone is on the same page. I make sure to re-visit the goals in meetings and revise them when needed. Meldahl recounts a womans newfound leadership taking on a "struggling territory," she, "led her team through a process to develop their region's values and chart their direction for the next year and beyond." When the time to make a decision, the company evaluated the decisions refrencing off of this chart.
When one has a grounded base in values, goals, or a vision- whichever you prefer to call them, the success rate of the individual, team, or company thrives almost exponentially. After all, we are the masters of our ships, the captain of our souls. It's up to us as to how we want to command it.
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