How having a crystal clear Vision will help you make decisions.
Every aspect of our lives is the result of the choices that we make. From our careers to our relationships, decisions have the power to shape our present and future.
Decisions can either lead us to the lives we want to live or keep us stuck and prevent us from achieving our goals. We have all experienced analysis paralysis where we end up making NO decision out of fear of making the wrong decisions, leaving us feeling stuck.
The quality and speed of our decisions determine the quality of our lives and our rate of growth.
Think about the big decisions you’ve made. Like moving, career changes, starting or ending a relationship.
How did you make these decisions?
Some people have a decision-making process, while others follow their gut.
In business (and in life) I have found that there is one key tool that will help you make all decisions. It will be your guide and north star when life gets tough.
That tool is your Vision.
Set a strong vision and know what results you are looking for. You can’t make a decision effectively if you don’t know what you want.
Vision Building: The 10 Year Target
One powerful exercise to start your vision building is to set a 10 Year Target for your business. Ask yourself “Where will the company be in 10 years from now?” You want to paint a clear picture of how the business will look, feel and operate.
Here are 4 tips to keep in mind when answering this questions:
1. Keep it simple. One or two sentences.
2. Create a vision that EVERYONE can see and identify with. Something the entire company can visualize, not just management.
3. Dream big. This is a 10-year vision — so be bold. A bold vision will inspire your team to climb mountains and push through difficult times.
4. Have a way to measure it so you know when you hit it!
One example of a big bold vision was that of Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola had a goal of having a Coke within reach of every human on the planet. And guess what, they did it! They did it by making daily decisions in line with their vision.
OpsLab’s 10 Year Target
I must admit that at the time of writing this newsletter, I had not set a 10 Year Target for OpsLab. I felt apprehensive about looking that far into the future as things will surely change in that timeframe and I was full of “what ifs”. It dawned on me that many entrepreneurs must have gone through this train of thought when thinking about the future!
In an effort to practice what I preach, I sat down and reflected on my growth and impact goals and came up with the following:
By 2033 OpsLab will have positively impacted the operation of 10,000 founder-led businesses and received a referral from every client.
I want OpsLab to touch the lives of a large number of people, and I want it to be so impactful that they can’t stop raving about us to others, who will in turn want a part of it! We’re going for scale, but always maintaining our quality of service and impact goals at the highest level.
Every day I make decisions based on that vision, such as writing this newsletter to provide value to those I connect with!
Once you set your 10-year target and the vision of where you want to go, decision-making will become a lot easier. You will use the vision you have created as a guide and whenever you need to make a decision you can ask yourself “Will this choice get me closer to our vision?”
No matter how big or small, here’s to making the tough decisions!
