Take Inventory & Create A Personal Vision

As an entrepreneur you must stay motivated by creating a future that is always greater than your past, regardless of how great your past has been. You always want to be moving forward, gaining more skills and knowledge and learning how to apply that knowledge to increase your earnings, your impact, freedom, and contribution.
 
In any journey you take, you must have a starting point (where you are now) and a desired destination point (where you will be in the future). My recommendation is to create a three year vision for yourself personally. The vision you create becomes your North Star, and if you are to achieve that future vision, your daily decisions will need to reflect the future vision you have set for yourself. You will need to become the person that is needed to achieve the vision you desire.
 
There are 10 categories I like to focus on when taking personal inventory and setting a vision. You need to first take inventory of each of these categories by giving yourself a “current score” from 1-10. A current score of one means you are strongly dissatisfied with where you are in this category. A current score of 10 means you are extremely satisfied with where you are in this category.
 
Note that you are scoring yourself based on your level of satisfaction in each of the 10 categories. Your perception of yourself matters most, not how others see you, or how you compare yourself to others, and is not based on an unrealistic ideal. It is your level of satisfaction with yourself.
 
You will notice the categories start with the tools in life, like money, time, and health. These tools don’t mean everything, unless you don’t have one of them, and then it means everything. You will want to be proactive with these tools so you take care of them before they become a problem.
 
As you move down the list of categories, they become more meaningful. They shift from tools to relationships to purpose to fulfillment. Every category is important, but you will find the categories further down the list are the most rewarding as you increase them to a higher level of personal satisfaction.
 
Here is a brief description of each of the categories on the Personal Vision:
 
Money & Wealth - earnings, spending, savings, safety net, debt, and investments
 
Freedom of Time - your ability to do what you want when you want to do it, your balance of work days vs. play days
 
Health & Fitness - your physical and mental condition, energy levels, and sleep quality
 
Fun & Recreation - your leisure time, activities filled with genuine enjoyment
 
Contribution & Impact - adding value to others and helping to change the lives of others in a positive and caring way
 
Family & Friends - your relationships with your children, parents, extended family, and your friends
 
Spouse & Love - your relationship with your spouse or partner, and if it is filled with caring and unselfish love 
 
Reputation - how others you care about think about you
 
Growth & Learning - your investment in yourself, continuing to evolve and develop as a person 
 
Personal & Spiritual - your identity, how you see yourself, and your connection with your higher power
 
Go ahead and grade yourself 1-10 on your level of satisfaction of where you are today in each of these categories, then add some details of why you gave yourself that score. You have now taken inventory of where you are today.
 
Now set a goal date of three years from now, and then repeat the exercise based on your desired levels of satisfaction in the future. Choose wisely on what you set as your desired satisfaction level three years from now.  It might seem like a good idea to set a goal of 10 for every category. However, I have noticed that with my clients who set a perfect ideal goal level of 10 do not make as much progress compared to those setting a realistic and attainable goal in each category.
 
Once you set your desired scores three years in the future and have put down some information explaining the details of what this looks like, you can focus on the primary action steps needed to get you from where you are today to where you want to be in the future.    
 
If you would like to use the tool I use with all of my coaching clients to take inventory and set a personal vision, shoot me an email at dave@maverickdrycleaners.com and I will be happy to send you the tool FREE of charge.
 
This process is how you intentionally grow by making sure your daily decisions reflect your vision. It is the best way I know to exponentially increase your income, impact, freedom, and contribution. 
 
Have a great week!
Dave