CHAPTER 1

Becoming a Visionary
The 12 Week Year journey begins with the first of the five
disciplines—Vision.
Your compelling vision provides the focus, direction, and
energy needed for you to achieve extraordinary results. The
best visions stretch you—they require your best work. Your
“same-old, same-old” just won’t do if you strive to become
great at anything.
You will have to stretch yourself and when you stretch, you
encounter resistance. Your old habits, thoughts, and
systems will all push back at you.
Most change fails because the price required is too high.
The ultimate price of change? Your comfort. That’s why
your vision is so important. It is your emotional and
intellectual “why.” It is the reason why you are willing to
pay the price of change. If you have a vision that you are
unwilling to abandon in the face of discomfort, you will
become what you are capable of becoming.
The first step in creating your powerful vision is to imagine
where you find yourself in 5, 10, 15, or even more years
into the future. When you do this, something amazing
happens. Neurons deep within your prefrontal cortex begin
to fire. These neurons are the same ones that fire when you
act on your vision. In a very real sense, when you imagine
your future, you are training your brain to act on it as well.
 SUCCESS TIP

Create a big vision. The larger your vision, the greater

your results will be—big thinking always precedes big
achievements. A big vision will call on you to deliver
your very best. A big vision will give you permission to
become more of what you are capable of.

On pages 79–81 of The 12 Week Year, we show how your

thinking can often get in the way as you work on creating a
big vision for yourself. If you have your copy of the book
handy, take a look at these pages and learn what kinds of
questions drive a big vision, and what kinds of questions
get in the way. Then as you work through this chapter of
the field guide, be aware of your thinking so that your
vision is big enough to tap into what you are capable of in
life.
In Exercise #1, which follows, you will do some initial
vision work. While it may sound simple enough, vision work
can require a fair amount of effort. In formulating your
vision, let your mind stretch to imagine, and even embrace,
the possibilities before you. These possibilities may be ones
that you push aside in your daily life as being not
immediate enough to command your attention, impractical,
or even too audacious to even consider! There are no right
or wrong answers in vision work. Please get comfortable,
remove distractions, and let’s get started.

EXERCISE #1: HAVE—DO—BE

This first exercise is designed to “prime the pump” and to
get you thinking about the possibilities for your life. Make
it fun. Dream about the things that truly excite you.
Vision is the first place where you either expand, or limit,
your results in life. Your goal is to create a stretch vision
that is emotionally compelling for you, one that
incorporates and strikes a balance between both your
personal and professional aspirations.
As we begin, remember that you will have to push back
against your limiting thinking. You may consider some big
and challenging elements to your vision that will cause you
to bump into what you believe are your current limits. You
may even feel some fear or anxiety as you contemplate
what it will take to reach your vision. Don’t give in to that
fear. It arises from your current thinking.
Anxiety creeps in when you begin to think that you don’t
know how to do something that is needed to reach your
vision. That not knowing can make you feel uncomfortable.
That discomfort can turn into anxiety and can ultimately
even keep you from trying. Let go of your “How will I do
this?” thoughts for a while! The question of “how” gets
tackled in Chapter 2 of this field guide—the 12 Week Year
Planning section.
For now, just focus on the question “What if?” What if you
could accomplish your big vision? What would be different
for you? For your family, friends, co-workers, team,
community, family, place of worship, and so on.
To get started on your vision journey, you will work through
an exercise called “Have—Do—Be.” It will take about 20
minutes to complete, and it is a lot of fun!
Below is a table to capture your work. Start with the first
column: “Have.” Brainstorm all the things you would like to
have in life, both material and nonmaterial. Perhaps you
wish to have things like a cottage or second home, a great
family, or financial security. Then stretch your thinking
even further to include things that are well beyond your
comfort zone—things like a private jet, or an island, or even
a home in space!
In the end, some of the things will matter, make the final
cut, and be part of your vision, and some won’t. For now,
just stretch. Work to fill the entire space provided.
Once the Have column is completed, repeat the same
process with the Do and the Be columns. Ready? Let’s get
started.

Note that the output of the Have—Do—Be exercise is not

your vison. It is simply a list of things that you want in your
life; you are not committing to anything just yet. However,
if some things show up in more than one column, they are
likely to end up in your final vision. Keep this completed
exercise handy—you will come back to it in the next
exercise, your Long-Term Vision.

EXERCISE #2: LONG-TERM VISION

It’s time to commit and to construct a vision of your life 5,
10, 15, or more years into the future. As you do this, pull
from your Have—Do—Be lists. As other things occur to you
as important, include them as well. Be bold, be courageous;
create a life vision that inspires you and fulfills your
purpose. There are no right or wrong answers. This is the
life you deeply desire. Build your long-term vision below:
Long-Term Vision
The next step is to craft your three-year vision—in two
parts—one part for your personal objectives, and one part
for your professional objectives. Your three-year vision
represents a stake in the ground for you. It is time-bound,
and more specific than your longer-term vision. It
represents progress toward your long-term vision, and it
defines what greatness looks like for you three years from
today. It may include elements of your long-term vision, and
it may have elements that are not fleshed-out there.

EXERCISE #3A: THREE-YEAR

PERSONAL VISION
Now that you have started thinking about the possibilities
in your life, let’s get specific. In the box below, first enter
your age—three years from today. Time is passing!
Next, determine what you want your personal life to be like
in three years. Consider the following areas, and any others
that may come to mind:

Spouse ∼ Family ∼ Health ∼ Spiritual ∼ Social ∼

Financial ∼ Intellectual ∼ Emotional ∼ Life Style

Three-Year Personal Vision Age: ___________

 EXERCISE #3B: THREE-YEAR
BUSINESS VISION
Now that you have some clarity on what you want your
personal life to look like in three years, let’s take a look at
your professional vision. Your career/business vision should
align and enable your life vision. Your professional vision
should financially fund your life vision, and it should
provide the desired amount of free time. Further, your
career should be enjoyable and rewarding in itself. The
areas you focus on, and the work you choose to do, should
be chosen to best support your life vision.
Consider the following questions:
What is your ideal profession? If you are an
What areas do you excel in? entrepreneur:
What space will you
What value do you create, and
what difference do you make? operate out of?

Where will you feel most fulfilled? Will you have multiple
locations?
What will your income be?
What is your target
How much time off will you have? market?
What position/role will you be What is your ideal
playing? client profile?
Will you lead others? What is your value
What will your team look like? offer?
How many clients will
you have in profile?
What is your service
model?
How will you market?
Will you be referral
based?

Three-Year Business Vision

For those of you in annualized organizations, or those with
important annual personal objectives, an additional helpful
step is to determine your 12-month vision. It often helps to
view your annual objectives as your vision four 12 Week
Years from today. Your 12-month vision should define the
progress needed to be on-track with your three-year vision,
and it should describe what greatness looks like for you 12
months from today.

EXERCISE #4: 12-MONTH VISION

(OPTIONAL)
What will your personal and professional life look like at
the end of the next 12 months? Identify where you need to
be to stay on track with your three-year and long-term
visions below:
12 Month Vision
 COMMON VISION PITFALLS
Don’t let these three common vision pitfalls derail your
achievement:
Pitfall 1: Not Taking the Power of Vision Seriously
Some people, especially type A’s, think that vision is
fluff. Those who think about vision this way tend to leap
past the question of purpose and dive into action. The
problem is that when the going gets difficult, it is harder
to stay committed to the work in the long run because
there is no compelling reason—no persuasive “why.” The
behaviors associated with this pitfall are not keeping
your vision in front of you, not aligning your plans with
it, and not remembering what is in it.
Pitfall 2: Not Making Your Vision Meaningful to
You
Sometimes we are superficial in crafting our vision. We
capture what we think we want, or we capture what we
think we are supposed to want, rather than capturing
what is meaningful to us. Visioning takes time. Keep
working on it until you have an emotional connection to
it.
Pitfall 3: Making Your Vision Too Small
A small vision doesn’t call on your best efforts. You don’t
have to reach, and you don’t sacrifice your comfort. A
small vision might be achievable, but you leave your
best undelivered. To be most effective, your vision
should make you feel uncomfortable—it should
challenge you into doing things differently, and doing
different things.
You’ve crafted your vision at this point and checked it to
avoid making those common mistakes. Here are four
important action steps to take to make your vision even
more powerful:
Action 1: Share It with Others

By sharing your vision, you become committed to it.

When you tell someone who is important to you what
you want in life, you often feel more responsibility to act.

Action 2: Stay in Touch with Your Vision

Print it out, or make a copy, and keep it with you.

Review it each morning. Update it every time that you
discover ways to make it more vivid and meaningful to
you. We suggest creating a 12WY Vision & Commitment
Card. Go to [Link]/fieldguide.
Action 3: Connect Your Vision to Your Daily Actions

Each day is an opportunity to either make progress on

your vision or to tread water. If you work from a plan
that is aligned with your vision, you can be sure that you
are acting on the most important things every day.

Action 4: Be Intentional

At the end of each day, take a few minutes to reflect on

the progress that you made today. Did it move you
forward, or was it filled with activity that wasn’t related
to your vision? Resolve to be intentional to make
progress on your vision—what action will you take
tomorrow?

Now armed with your vision for inspiration, it is time to

begin the exciting process of creating your roadmap to the
future of your dreams—your 12 Week Year Plan!

[Link]