We’ve completed step 1. Step 2 in creating your personal vision statement is to make a list of your strengths and skills and decide how they relate to what you want to do with your life. It’s time to get out the handy pen and paper again.
What are your strengths as a person? Write down everything you can think of. This is another brainstorming session. Don’t judge yourself and don’t hold back because of uncertainty or insecurity.
Are you strong (physically or psychologically)? Persistent? Independent? Are you a freethinker? Good at helping people get along? Are you highly intelligent? Empathic? Incredibly organised? You have a list of strengths just like everyone else. Don’t stop with this list until you feel like you’ve covered them all.
Next, you’re going to do the same thing for your skills. List every skill you can think of that you have, in particular those that are related to the goals you identified in step one. What skills do you currently have that will help you get to those goals? How many of those are good to go and which need work?
Now, look back at the list of goals once again. What are the strengths a person who reaches each of those goals must possess? Go down the list and evaluate them one by one. Take your time with this; don’t rush this process. When you’re done, do it again and write down the list of skills needed to accomplish these goals.
You may have already guessed what the next step is going to be. You’re going to compare the two lists you’ve created -the one of strengths and skills you already have versus those that you need to accomplish all of these goals you want to achieve.
The differences between the two are your areas of weakness. These are things you will probably need to work on if you’re going to make all of your goals a reality. Circle all of these weaknesses.
If you like, you can add working on some, or all of these weaknesses, to your personal vision statement. You don’t have to do so, but if you don’t, you still need to keep the list handy because the chances are that you will have to work on these things if you want to reach your goals.
When you’ve finished step 2 of your personal vision statement, set the lists you made aside -but keep them handy for later. We’ll cover steps 3 and 4 very soon.