When you started your business, what inspired you? What continues to inspire you and drive your company forward today? Look at what values represent your business — what it truly stands for, the deeper meaning behind it. Consider how you most want to express your products and/or services in the marketplace. Contemplate your company’s future and where you want to go from here.
These are all elements of your “Big Picture Vision.” Don’t hold yourself back from imagining your greatest possible future. Dream big, and allow yourself to envision what it would feel like to take things all the way to your most exciting goals.
12 Questions to Align with Your Big Picture Vision
Does the company you are creating align with your ultimate vision of success? Does your company’s current track match up with where you ultimately want to be? See where you stand with your Big Picture Vision by trying out this exercise.
Answering these 12 questions will help you break through limiting thoughts and behaviors and inspire you to expand your way of thinking to encompass your greatest success. Allow yourself to explore whether or not your current way of doing business is actually in alignment with the way in which you want your business to grow.
Here’s how:
Choose your own setting and free yourself of distractions. All you need to bring is a printout of this free Big Picture Vision mind map, this list of questions, a pad of paper, and a couple of pens.
Once you are situated and relaxed, free your mind and begin to answer the following questions — quickly, as soon as the answer comes to you. Do not overthink the questions and do not edit your answers. Allow the words to flow directly from your mind onto the page.
Give yourself permission to tap into your “higher self” and get a true read on where you want to be five years from now in your business. What comes up in your mind when you imagine your company’s growth five years into the future?
Don’t waste any time thinking about “the how” when completing this exercise. Take all restrictive thoughts out of the equation, as any energy spent analyzing will stop your creative flow. “The how” will unfold over time, so let it go during this explorative process.
On your Big Picture Vision mind map printout, write your answers to the following questions in present tense, as if five years into the future is happening now:
- What are your daily and weekly schedules like?
- How are you spending your time?
- What is your current revenue?
- What do the operations of your company look like? How are they run?
- What added products and/or services have you produced and are now monetizing?
- What are you achieving with your marketing?
- What does the sales department of your company consist of?
- What has your branding accomplished?
- What is the media saying about you?
- What are you being recognized for? (Examples: awards, recognition, etc.)
- What does your team say about you?
- What are your clients saying about you?
Once you have finished filling out the Big Picture Vision mind map, take the notes in the circles and write a complete story about this vision on your notepad. If you were living that vision now, what would that experience be like for yourself? What would it look like to the outside world? What would it feel like to be running this company? Write down every aspect of the vision that you want to create. The more detailed you are, the better. Refine the story until it feels right. And believe in it! After all, what we believe about the world is a huge factor in how we actually experience it.
This is the Big Picture Vision of your business — what you intend to create. Now it’s time to start aligning your company’s current reality with it.
Share Your Vision to Enroll Support
Share your vision with your team in a company-wide meeting. Give everyone time to read it and invite them to share what stands out most about it to them. Enjoy the experience of watching your team realize that they are part of a much bigger journey. Sharing in your vision will enable your team to feel that there are new frontiers ahead, giving them a renewed sense of pride as they work to help you make this vision a reality.
Share your vision with your customers, your vendors, your prospects, and your job applicants. Many companies are so proud of their vision that they post it front and center on their websites for all to see as a sales, marketing, and recruiting tool. Who wouldn’t want to work for or with a visionary company?
The more people you share your vision with, the more opportunity your company has to grow. Over time, the word will spread and you will attract those who are aligned to come on board as devoted employees, clients, valuable connections, and even potential investors.
Some people may be opposed to or critical of your vision, but this is a good sign! It means you’re onto something. Smile back at them because you know in your heart that you’re on the right path. Not everyone will align with your Big Picture Vision, and that’s okay. That said, if you have naysaying employees, get them off the bus as soon as you can, as they will hold you back and may poison and discourage the rest of your team. You want to surround yourself with people who are supportive, positive, and uplifting.
Research shows that the brain treats actual memories and visualized memories similarly, so you can start creating your experience of success today by taking the time to visualize your Big Picture Vision as a reality every morning and every night. When problems surface during the course of any given day — and they always do — go back to your vision and remind yourself why you have chosen this path and why it is so important to stay on it. Read your vision aloud and visualize it happening at that moment. You’ll feel a renewed sense of confidence and strength to find the solutions you need to succeed.
