Creating a career that energizes and inspires you takes a clear vision. Once you are clear on your vision, how do you keep your career vision alive? How do you sustain your focus to follow through and make your vision real? My client, let’s call her Rosie, brought these powerful questions to her coaching session. Witnessing Rosie find her answers to these questions inspired me to share a fun tool that will help you keep your vision alive, too.

Become Aware of Your Career Vision Obstacles

Rosie had recently started a new job as a stepping-stone towards her ultimate career goal of becoming a real estate investor. She came to her coaching session with the awareness that she could easily get stuck in this job. Rosie was afraid that she could slip back into bad habits of letting her job consume all her energy. She didn’t want to lose sight of why she took on this interim job and where she was truly headed.

How about YOU? Where are you on the trajectory towards your ultimate career goal? What are the inner obstacles that could derail you from making your vision real? Take a quick inventory and write down your insights.

Visit Your Ultimate Career Vision

I asked Rosie what would help her to keep her vision alive. Rosie explained that while she had a general idea of where she ultimately wanted to be, she wanted to get a clearer sense of the steps involved in getting there. “Shall we begin by visiting your ultimate career vision?” I asked. Rosie was eager to do that. She started talking about her and her partner, let’s call him Ryan, spending their time as they wanted, not being tied to a physical job. I asked Rosie to sum up her grand vision in a few words and Rosie said: “Me and Ryan living in freedom.”

I congratulated Rosie on her clear vision and asked what she felt in her body as she envisioned this future. Rosie noticed a sense of lightness in her torso and felt excited, happy and free. I encouraged Rosie to really savour these delicious sensations. After a few moments I asked her what she was noticing now. Rosie shared a sense of peacefulness and contentment.

I acknowledged Rosie’s exquisite awareness and affirmed the power of her clear vision and how real it already felt for her as she envisioned it. Then I asked her what kind of image she associated with her grand vision. Rosie saw palm trees that symbolized the freedom to travel that her ultimate vision would bring to her.

Before you read any further, take a moment to connect with your own ultimate vision. What does it look like? Which values do you honour with your vision? How does it feel in your body, when you imagine living your vision? What symbol or image captures the essence of your vision? Jot down your insights and if you are not sure yet, simply write these questions in your journal for further contemplation.

Plan Your Career Vision in Reverse Order

“Awesome, Rosie! How would you like to go about keeping your powerful career vision alive? Do you want to look at the phases leading up to the realization of your vision in reverse time order or would you rather start planning from where you are now?” Rosie chose to explore the reverse time order experiment. She said that she had already tried starting from her present situation, but always got stuck in details and problems. 

Step into Your Success – Phase

I asked Rosie to reconnect with her ultimate vision of living in freedom and then imagine the phase that would lead up to her success. Rosie felt excited as she saw herself and Ryan almost ready to quit their jobs. When I asked Rosie to imagine landing in that phase and noticing how it felt in her body, she immediately noticed a sense of pride. It also felt a bit scary, but mostly invigorating. “What’s the symbol that comes to mind as you imagine that phase of your vision?” Rosie saw a calculator as a symbol for the calculated risk they were taking.

Create Your Success – Phase

Next, we explored the phase leading up to Rosie and Ryan being ready to quit their jobs. As Rosie imagined that phase she sighed: “I see both of us working our jobs and building our real estate investment business. It’s intense and it could take quite a few years.” Rosie decided to call this their “build up phase”. As she imagined that phase of her career vision she noticed both excitement and tiredness in her body. As she sat with these sensations for a moment she felt a deep sense of empowerment. “We are really doing it! We are building our dream future!” she exclaimed. Rosie chose a hundred-dollar bill as her symbol for this crucial phase. 

Establish Your Foundation for Success – Phase

Then we landed back in Rosie’s current reality, where she is learning so much, laying the foundation for her ultimate vision and working out her plan. “What’s it like in your body to be in this phase of your vision, Rosie?” I asked. As she tuned in, she noticed tiredness and frustration interspersed with moments of excitement. She felt an openness in her body and a palpable absence of tension. “I am doing this for me and for us. It’s great to have this focus. It keeps me from letting my day job take over my life.”

I acknowledged Rosie’s valuable insight and asked what symbol she saw for her current phase of her grand vision. Rosie chose an owl as a symbol for her wisdom in her commitment to her ultimate vision. She smiled as she said: “And one day the owl will sit on a palm tree. The owl will help me keep my career vision alive!”

Together we celebrated Rosie’s clarity on all phases of her vision. Rosie said that she finally sensed a clear path ahead. Knowing all the phases of her vision would help her sustain her commitment and focus every step of the way.

Get Clear on the Phases that Lead to Your Grand Vision

Just like Rosie, I encourage you to envision the phases leading up to your ultimate vision in reverse order. Begin by tuning into the phase that precedes your own ultimate vision. What does it look like? How does it feel in your body when you imagine living that phase of your career vision? What symbol or image captures the essence of that phase of your vision? Jot down your insights. If you are not sure yet, put these questions in your journal for further contemplation.

Take some quality time aside to work your way backwards through each distinct phase you anticipate using the questions above. Just like Rosie, you don’t have to figure this out alone. I am right here to coach you how to keep your career vision alive. 

Make Your Career Vision Visual

I encouraged Rosie to create a visual representation of her vision-exploration. She was eager to do that and committed to creating a collage, using her powerful chosen symbols. “Way to go, Rosie, for making your career vision more visual! Where are you going to put your collage?” I inquired. Rosie decided to put her collage on her desktop as her background image, so that she would see her vision every day.

Over to YOU! What kind of visual representation of your vision phase exploration would be most powerful for you? Do you want to create a collage, draw your vision path, or collect physical objects that represent each phase of your vision? Take a moment to tune into what kind of visuals would be most powerful for YOU! Then consider where your career vision visuals will serve you best. Where do you most need to be reminded of your powerful vision path ahead?

Just like Rosie, you don’t have to travel alone through the phases of making your vision a reality, book your free career clarity consultation today!