How to Get Clear On Your Vision When You Don’t Know What Your Big Dream Is

Feb 27

Written By Kelsey at Ink and Pine Creative

Maybe you already know exactly what you want out of life, and you know exactly how you’re going to get there. If that’s you, then this blog post isn’t for you. But you might want to check out my 5 life-changing benefits of journaling article, or Introducing the Simply Magic Lifestyle Framework article I’ve posted previously.

This post is for those of you who feel or have felt lost, and are hoping to find more clarity in your life. I want to share with you some actionable steps you can implement right away to narrow down your focus and uncover your most fulfilling goals. I want to help you create your life vision.

You in? Awesome! Let’s get into it…

Imagine yourself driving in a car. You can't stop driving, and you know you have to go somewhere, but you can't figure out exactly where that somewhere is...

You lack direction and purpose in that moment. You feel lost.

This is what going through life without a clear vision is like. You might take a few side roads that go nowhere, all in a never-ending quest to find that "somewhere" special. That place that gives your journey meaning and shapes your entire life.

How can you show up well for your life if you don't even know what you want out of it? Clarifying your vision is like creating a map to your best life. It gives you the directions you need to go somewhere better.

This is why clarifying your vision is so important! Not only does it give you direction in your life it also:

✔️ Is a great tool to combat comparison. Unfortunately, we are all guilty of comparing ourselves to others, but if you know the why behind what you're doing, and that what you're doing is full of purpose, you can feel confident in your choices.

✔️ It allows you to avoid overwhelm by disregarding the things that don't bring you closer to your life goals. Being clear on your vision gives you daily actions filled with purpose. Being able to identify and prioritize things that will bring you closer to your big picture, relieves some of the pressure, burnout, and overwhelm. You feel confident knowing that you know what needs to be done and you're working towards it, even if the progress is slow. Even the most mundane tasks start to feel important because you know they are bringing you closer to your big picture.

Clarifying your vision means defining your values. It's knowing what you want your life to look like and feel like and it's knowing what goals you're working towards. When we are clear on our vision we know what's important in each season and why. This knowledge is so valuable because it allows us to spend our resources like our time and energy on what matters most.

Okay, but how do we get clear on our vision?

Don’t worry girl, I got you! I’m going to be breaking down 3 action steps you can take TODAY to create a clear vision for your future.

Step 1: Evaluate Your Life

In order to create your road map to where you are going in life, you need to know where you are. Every year, sometimes even multiple times throughout the year, I take a few moments to evaluate different aspects of my life in terms of how satisfied I am with those areas. I want you to do the same, so I’ve provided a downloadable life evaluation worksheet for you to use to evaluate your life. This is the exact worksheet and system I’ve been using for years, and I think you’ll find it very helpful!

download the life evaluation worksheet

Step 2: Reflect on the Past

I can’t stress to you how important it is to reflect on - not dwell on - the past. When we only focus on the future, we set ourselves up for failure. By putting all your effort into achieving your goals as quickly as you can, you end up burning out. I’ve personally done this more times than I can even count, and it’s ultimately what inspired me to change the way I go about setting goals. Uncovering really good goals means learning from the past in order to prepare for the future.

Here are a few questions I want you to ask yourself:

What are some of the good things that happened in your life over the last year?
What are some of the challenges from last year? What didn’t go the way you thought it would?
What remains unresolved in your life right now?

Write it down. Journaling is a very therapeutic activity, allowing you to get it off your chest and out of your mind.

Despite the challenges and the unresolved, you get to make a choice about who you want to be. Thinking about who you want to be and what you want to be remembered for will help guide you when you create your big picture. We don't want our lives to be based on artificial goals, we want our lives to be based on the person we want to be. And an easy way to identify who that is is to think about the legacy you want to leave behind.

So write out who you want to be and what legacy you want to create. Do you want to be remembered for having a clean house, or do you want to be remembered for treating people with kindness? These are important questions to ask ourselves as they really point out the things we are doing because we simply don't want others to judge us, and the things we are doing because we actually value them.

Be as specific as you can. This definition will give you the clarity you need to focus on what matters. Because living a meaningful and fulfilling life isn't just about checking off your to-do list. It's about building something that you can be proud of - now and when you're 80.

Step 3: Build Your Big Picture

The last step of clarifying our vision is to build your big picture. Keep in mind, building your big picture is not the same thing as setting goals. Goals are specific steps or milestones that help get you to your life vision, but they are not the vision itself.

So create a vision board of what you want your big picture to look like. If you could imagine your most purposeful and fulfilling life, what would it include? Creating your life's vision will help you see your path with more clarity. You can complete this step on any blank piece of paper, or you can create a poster, a page in your digital planner, or a corkboard. Don't be afraid to get creative with it and have some fun!

Your vision board should be filled with things you would like to manifest in your life long term. You can set any length of time you'd like, but I encourage you to think at least 5 years out, if not more. I would also encourage you to think more broadly, and not specific. Think about your lifestyle as a whole, and not just materialistically. This would be the difference between saying "I want to go to China" and I want to "be able to travel". One is a lifestyle choice, and one is a specific task.

So, what’s next?

Now that you’ve completed your vision board, you might be wondering what the next step is. How do we turn this vision we’ve created into a reality?

This is where things get good!

The Simply Magic Lifestyle Framework is all about turning that big dream into reality - all without sacrificing the things that matter. So if you’re ready to take the next step in your journey, I encourage you to grab the FREE Simply Magic Handbook. It’s a quick start guide to everything you need to know to get started on your Simply Magic Lifestyle Journey.

And if you’d prefer to listen instead of reading, you might want to check out the Simply Magic Podcast…