Happy New Year!

This weekend, I’m volunteering with Bloom Foundation, which helps middle school and high school girls bloom with confidence as leaders. I’m taking the girls through a visioning exercise … which may be helpful for you too!

After all, strategy is irrelevant unless you have a clear vision. You need the “why” (vision) before the “what” (mission) and the “how” (strategy). 

It also informs the “who” – who do you need to embody to create this big change in the world?

Your vision is a striking (yet simple) description of the future world you’re creating. When you put your vision out there, people are inspired to lean in and make that new reality happen, together.

If your leadership journey was a movie, your vision would be the headline on the newspaper when everything gets solved. Things like:

Humankind Defeats Addiction!

Gender Wage Gap Eliminated!

Burnout Epidemic Eradicated!

Every character, obstacle, and struggle you meet this year can propel you closer to that vision coming true.

Your company, nonprofit, or movement you work with probably has its own vision statement. But do you?

If not – or if it’s been a while – try imagining one. By dreaming up fresh ideas, you can design an intentional new future, rather than recycling ideas of “how we’ve always done it.”

✨ What would be the newspaper cover story that comes out once your ideal new world comes to fruition?

✨ Who/what were the main characters, sidekicks, villains, and obstacles featured in this story?

✨ What behaviors and habits had to die, and which had to be born, so you could embody the kind of leader you are to become?

Crafting your vision statement is the first step towards affecting change as a thought leader, movement maker, or social impact leader.