How To Create Your Personal Vision Statement

In a previous article, I wrote about a personal vision statement, what it is and why you need one for yourself. As I pointed out, having a personal vision statement will among all other things help you stay on track with your purpose, vision, goals and objectives. In this post, I will help you understand how to create a personal vision statement for yourself.

Define Or Clarify Who You Are

An effective personal vision statement takes into account who you are as a person. You are creating the vision statement for yourself so it must be one that represents your true self. To define and clarify who you are, you will have to define the following:

• Your strengths
• Your values

Define Or Clarify What You Do And How You Do It

In creating your vision statement, you will need to define what you do and how you do it. This is important as it will help tell anyone who stumbles upon your vision statement what exactly you do and how you do it. That way, it will help you close more clients if you are into a service-based business. 

Define Or Clarify Your Short And Long-Term Goals

As pointed out in the definition of a personal vision statement, a personal vision statement helps remind you of your present and future goals. In creating your vision statement, you want to be able to tell yourself in clear terms what your short and long-term goals are.

Write Your Personal Vision Statement 

When you are done with the necessary definitions and clarifications you need to do, there is nothing more left to be done than to set down to write your vision statement. In writing your vision statement you will have to consider the results of your clarifications and reflections. What do you consider striking in the course of your reflections and what do you consider most inspiring? These are the things you want to build your statements on. 

There is no rule as to how a personal vision statement should be written or how long it should but you must make it detailed and brief. The length could range from 30—70 words, depending on you. If you would love to have a longer vision statement, you may consider creating two versions – one short and the other long. Below is a simple guide you can adapt:

The first sentence of your vision statement should answer the question of ‘WHAT?’ This is necessary as that would be the first thing someone would want to know about you – what you do.

The second sentence should answer the question ‘WHO?’ This is where you tell who your target audience is. If there is no target audience, you can go future to talk about who you are.

The third should answer the question ‘HOW?’ This is important, especially if you provide services to people.

Other Things To Note

It is called a Personal Vision Statement for a reason, make it personal. The wordings and message of your vision statement should speak to you first of all.

You can review and rewrite your vision statement. It is not set in stone and so can change at any time in your career journey. So ensure you make out time to review your vision statement. I always advise an annual review. Some persons do biennial. You can choose your period of review.

Examples of Personal Vision Statements 

To be a teacher. And to be known for inspiring my students to be more than they thought they could be.

Oprah Winfrey, Founder of The Oprah Winfrey Network.

To serve as a leader, live a balanced life, and apply ethical principles to make a significant difference. 

Denise Morrison, American Business Executive.

To have fun in my journey through life and learn from my mistakes. 

Richard Branson, Founder of The Virgin Group.

Closing Thoughts

I have just shown you how you can create a personal vision statement that works for you. As I pointed out, there is no rule on how your vision statement is to look or the length. You can play around with the guide in this post or you can choose to do away with it entirely. There are no rules.