Welcome to "Learn How to See Better." It's the only podcast out there that'll improve your vision the longer you listen. This is your host, Drew Davis, and today, we're going to embark on a journey I like to call re-visioneering your future.

"Don't default into the day; that's what this idea of living life by design is all about. You're living by design, not by default." So every day when we wake up, we want to remind ourselves one way or another, "Keep living that dream, keep dreaming, keep living that life by design."

We all have a good understanding and a clear sense of when things feel good in our world and they just kind of feel like they're going the right direction. Similarly, we know what that buildup of angst feels like when things aren't going our way. So, to talk about this topic of re-visioneering our future, I want to touch on something that I just got a reminder of recently, coming back from an event intended for business owners.

What was good about the reminder from this event was that it said, "Hey, let's take a timeout and step back and revisit some of the things that drive the business, even before the business is being built." Now, whoever's listening to this right now may not be a business owner, but pay close attention; it's really about the vision and revisiting it because we all know that in our lives we go through different phases, different cycles, different seasons, and sometimes as the seasons change, we want to revisit.

"Is the weather like we like it? Have we got a thick enough jacket on when the weather chills down a little bit? Do we have a hat on to keep warm? How are things going? Are we still in alignment with the direction that we want to go? Are we too busy to slow down and pause and take stock of the enjoyment that we're seeking in life and the enjoyment we may possibly want to get back to?"

And the enjoyment that, let's say, if you are a business owner, you are having or are not having, is important to realize and assess every so often because you can find yourself in a scenario where you're building a business but you don't love it, and you might be trying to really get your life optimized to the way you want it to be. If you're trying to optimize a business and haven't optimized some of the things in your life the way you would more ideally like, then you can see how there may naturally be conflict, mismatch, and potential struggle.

So let's take a second to get back right on that personal vision piece, because what we're essentially doing is using that as a road map for how we want our life to turn out. What are our values? What are our needs? What are our belief systems that we want to kind of guide us like an internal navigation system?

"Sometimes it might be easy for a business owner, whether you're a business owner or not, or you've known a business owner, hey, they might want to make a million bucks or a billion bucks, uh, but is it as simple as that? Are the milestones as simple as just numerical components? Um, and what else is involved with that growth? Is there simply achievement alone, or does transformation come with it?"

And that's what I think really when we look at how a business vision and a personal vision can kind of weave into one another and support one another, it is important to revisit because sometimes when we put the cart before the horse, that's where that internal conflict comes from.

So, knowing that if you can set your business mission and the values that it has and place them in concert with what you personally believe, you're going to be in a great position to attract the right team, the right personnel, the right clients that resonate with who you are, which should be aligned with the mission statement of the business.

When we can bring those things together, that's what you really want to focus on, that harmony, but not starting with only just facts and figures, profit and loss, and other numerical components because the more time I spend in business and around other business owners, the more I find it's not that uncommon for a business owner to build something kind of big, maybe really big, maybe massively big, but they don't love it and, in some extreme cases, they even hate it. Dare I say, so it can be kind of wild.

And so, for me, taking a moment to pause, reflect, and consider my point in this journey where I'm at now, now which is all of a sudden 15 years into the journey of a business owner, quite interesting. What did I think of on day one or day minus one, or on day 10, or day 365, or day 3,650? How does our viewpoint change based on the trials, the tribulations, the successes, the setbacks? What's next? What do you want it to be?

There's that old song from I don't know when, maybe back in the 80s, you know, seasons change, people change, and it goes on. It's got a nice saxophone playing in the background, and it's, you know, things you know from tomorrow different from the things of yesterday. I don't even remember how the song goes, but it's symbolic of the fact that life changes, we change, and I just shared 15 years is a lot of time.

And so what might have sounded great 10 years ago might not sound the same as it does today, and so to revisit that and recognize it's okay, it's okay because I still remember early on in our journey where when you first get started in business, it's I mean it's pretty amazing. You want to take some white-hot desire uh and recognize what that looks like in a person um, you know, go take a look at a brand new, freshly minted you know entrepreneur or solopreneur or one person business or however you want to label it. They're on fire, they're filled with energy, you know, to the peak and probably want to take over the world in a positive way.

But at some point, there will be experiences that help us to understand more about the things that we seek. As an example, you take a business owner that wants to just you know maximize profits, you know, at all costs, and it's just specifically about a dollar amount, and they are willing to work the 80-hour weeks to do it, and they want to do it in record time, and they don't want to make a pause for anything. They'll make the personal sacrifices—sleep, social life, etc., etc., etc. That's great for a season, but once a certain level of success is attained in the business, if let's just say this hypothetical person achieves everything they were looking for, now what? Is it pedal still to the metal, or are there other things on this person's path that they want to make time for?

What it didn't share is whether or not the person wants to have a family someday or to take time to travel. Maybe this is all front-loaded, you know, heavy activation energy to get something massive moving so that it can be a great you know big shade tree from planting the seed that feeds your fruit for life, but it all boils down to what the individual wants and how they want to really pursue the happiness that they're seeking in life.

So just to make sure I get down to the essence of what I want to drive home in this idea of re-visioneering your future, first, I had to help you kind of understand, you know, what's this whole concept about um, you know if you're only 15 years old, this idea might seem a little bit far-fetched to revision, you might be building your first vision, but I gave an example of someone that's been in business for 15 years, and as an adult, taking time to evaluate those experiences and essentially set time to rest and reflect, you know, that's one of those key components to actually going through this process of re-visioneering your future. Since there's a 're' in the front, you got to have a vision to start with.

The first step is you know you got to rest and reflect. Take time to pause and kind of look at what you've been looking at and how do you feel about how you're feeling. What do you see or sense, or how would you articulate your current personal vision? How would you articulate your current business vision? For some people, it's easier to articulate a business vision because it might be black and white. "I want to make a million bucks in the next 12 months." Okay, great. How does that line up with your personal vision and what you're willing to do to achieve that business goal? Give some thought to that.

And so, if those are in alignment, great, keep pushing, but you got to pause and look at that periodically. Another thing is you want to look for ways to be able to kind of stress-test the idea, you know, one of the things that I've learned about the journey of the entrepreneurs, it can be kind of lonely at times, and so to be able to, you know, make sure you're able to kind of keep your sanity, having a trusted peer group or a coach or a mentor or even joining a mastermind can be essential to get that right type of feedback from other experts, other trusted sources that have been through similar experiences and can contribute valuable feedback based on what their realities have been like and their triumphs over similar situations potentially. So knowing that, getting good folks to pour into you and to be around is very essential to this process of re-visioneering your future.

Obviously, if you're going to go through those and get that feedback, you're going to take that time to pause; you need to take the time to then okay invest the energy into putting together and actually doing that look ahead, that future visualization, whether you want to cut snippets out of the magazine of lifestyle or whatever it is, uh, to start putting that vision together, or you want to sketch things out, or uh, you want to take pictures and write out what you want the future to be like, that's a great way to do it. Put pen to pad, make some declarations, put together a vision board. Those are all ways to help put some fresh thinking to reintroduce your mind at its deepest levels to you know where you want to go, what you actually see in this refreshed version of you.

And last but not least, there's got to be something to commit to, to put this into plan. So you want to be able to make sure that if you want to shoot for the stars, make sure you're prioritizing, you know, putting the gas in the tank, the octane fuel, the growth, to get there so you can hit that escape velocity so to speak and really get to where you want to go because you're going to have the drive and the push behind you personally, knowing that your vision for your personal life and your professional life or your business are in sync with one another, so critical.

So there you have it, four simple, straightforward approaches, steps to be able to re-visioneer your future. Take the time, get the positive inputs, make sure you look ahead with a new vision, and visualize that future you want to attract and make it a high priority to get after it.

If you've never done this before, you might be thinking, uh, alright, this sounds cool, but I just did a Vision exercise for my personal life and/or my business life not that long ago. How often should I revisit it? Well, for some people, it might be annually just to confirm with themselves that it's on track because you want to give it enough time to really get some traction, but you don't want to wait too long. But if you know or happen to be experiencing anything where an element of life is shifting, or you're going through significant changes, that might be another time, after you've gone through that, to make sure you're processing things correctly as you revisit and make sure you're still good, feeling that alignment.

You know, another thing that might be thought up is like, okay, well, what if you see from this exercise or taking the time, it's like, okay, you go and do it, but then you're like, oh snap, there's conflict here. What do you do? Well, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to throw the baby out with the bathwater in this case, the baby meaning the business, but it may mean that you need to look at a different model, a different approach. Maybe you're not bathing the baby; maybe it's a shower for the baby, uh, maybe you're just doing something different altogether and taking a pivot or pause or step back or shifting what you're doing so that you can get that alignment. But exploring that first before a complete abandonment of ship because knowing what efforts are put forth into building any sort of business that's worthy over time, time is not something you want to take lightly when you look at its future, whether we're talking about its success or its demise.

At the end of the day, re-visioneering your future, this really is another rung on the ladder when we're talking about the process of mental evolution, spiritual evolution, making sure that you're growing with your vision and not apart from your vision, very similar to what you might see in a scenario where a long-lasting loving couple of 50 years, they've grown together versus grown apart on that journey. And so when you're willing to grow together and invest the time into creating a strong, solid personal vision and then using that to fuel your professional or your business vision, that's where you see that you are empowering yourself to have personal fulfillment as well as business success that really ought to reflect who you are and who you aspire to be. And once you're able to keep those actions and intents in alignment, it's awesome.

​That's what I've got for you today! Thank you very much for tuning in to "Learn How to See Better." This is your host, Drew Davis, and I will see you next time. Till then, keep living with definiteness, and don't forget to re-vision your future. Thank you.