One of Stephen Covey’s habits of highly effective people, begin with the end in mind, is particularly relevant for any visioning process. This habit draws from the power of imagination and visualization. It can be described as the ability to create a mental image of a desired future state. With this creation, an individual can move towards making that vision a reality.
Essentially, without a sense of where you want to end up, it’s difficult to get there.
A vision for the future doesn’t have to be restricted to paid employment – it can pull from the broader definition of career that includes work, life, and learning domains.
For example:
When Sally, an individual with a traumatic brain injury, considers her future, she envisions herself sitting on the porch of the farmhouse that has been in her family’s possession for more than 50 years. She breathes in the cool mountain air and sips her tea, taking a quiet reflective moment before she packs up and heads into town with a recent batch of jam she’ll sell at the farmer’s market. She wants to continue her family legacy in a way that is sustainable for her, the farm, and the community. Her motto is: simple, sustainable creation, and independent living.
Yara, a local grocery store manager, dreams of creating an inclusive, community-based space that brings together local artisans and farmers. She sees many employees struggle with the strict corporate policies that leave little flexibility to her employees (and herself). She wants to put her leadership skills to better use, creating and managing a market to showcase local products. When she looks to the future, her mission is to work closely with those previous employees who struggled in a more traditional, restrictive employment setting, to create a space where they can thrive and grow.
After Jonathan’s sister got injured, he knew he need to stay close by to support her in maintaining her independence; his work as a long-haul trucker would make that difficult. He envisions a future where she can manage/maintain the farmhouse with his support getting to and from where she needs to go (e.g., medical appointments, errands). He notices how much people like her struggle to build their lives and return to work after injury. He dreams of creating a community shuttle service to get people where they need to go, when they need it. The core values he embodies are: empathy, kindness, flexibility, and independence.
Whether you are an individual with a disabling condition seeking to find and maintain employment, a workplace providing opportunities, or a community group/member offering support, if you don’t know where you want to go and why, you’re not likely to get there. To help you be successful in your visioning, this resource will:
Visioning is a precursor for decision making, goal setting, and action planning. It enables you to:
Visioning doesn’t necessarily need to be an intensive, formal process. It occurs anytime we reflect on our hopes and desires for the future; it occurs anytime we allow ourselves to dream. Visioning is truly a human experience. You can start with very broad, general, and even abstract ideas. As you move forward, you may find yourself getting more and more specific.
Use the following prompts to guide your reflection.
Have you ever found yourself thinking about what type of future you want for yourself? If so, what was that? If not, why didn’t you?
On the surface, visioning is a rather simple reflective process; however, you’ll need to make sure you have the essential elements in place before you get started.
Much like when you are making something to eat, there are some things you bring with you – e.g., your cooking skills, your interest in cooking, the basic food ingredients. In the visioning process, the essential ingredients include what you know about yourself – e.g., the skills, interests, knowledge you possess.
One way to help identify these personal qualities is to analyze situations where you accomplished something you were particularly proud of or achieved a difficult or prestigious goal, outcome, or milestone. The accomplishment should represent something that is important to you. It can be big or small, simple or complex, formal or informal. It could be something recent or from years ago. All of these qualify as accomplishments. What is important at this stage is the sense of pride you felt, not necessarily the external validation of others. Although external recognition of your accomplishment might be present, it is not necessary for this activity.
Consider a time you were especially proud of an accomplishment. Be sure to look across a broad set of domains – work, life, and/or learning. Use the following prompts to help you craft a short story.
What was that situation? Who was involved?
What role did you play in the situation? What tasks/activities were you responsible for?
What action did you take? Why?
What was the outcome?
Note: Don’t overlook things that may seem small – like expressing your opinion, setting a boundary, standing up for yourself or others, or facing a fear.
Review the Pride Story you crafted. You may also want to share this with a trusted friend, colleague, peer, or mentor to get their thoughts as well.
What characteristics, strengths, and/or skills did you notice?
Self-awareness is the bedrock of visioning. If you’ve found your way to these resources, you likely already possess some awareness that the current situation for individuals with disabling conditions, especially within rural/remote communities, needs to improve. If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to challenge some of the biases or you may hold or myths you’ve been taught, visit the Challenge Your Assumptions resource.
Whether you are an individual with a disabling condition yourself or part of a workplace or community seeking to better support such individuals, before you can move forward with visioning, take a moment to reflect on your own personal beliefs, desires, and purpose. Knowing your WHY will ensure the future you envision will be tied to your own passion and not just something you need to do – it will be something you want to do.
Simon Sinek speaks to the importance of self-reflection and starting with your WHY. You can hear him speak to the origins of the WHY here:
For more ideas on finding your WHY, visit Simon Sinek.com
Review the characteristics, strengths, and/or skills from your Pride Story to discover connections, evidence, or clues about your WHY.
What does your Pride Story tell you about your purpose, desires, and dreams?
What is something you’d like to achieve in the future? Why?
Why is it important for you to address the diversity disconnect between individuals with disabling conditions, workplaces, and communities at this time – i.e., why now?
In cooking, there are also essential elements like the ingredients and equipment (e.g., cutting board, knife, bowl, stove) that you have access to (or not). In visioning, these components may include concepts like hope, optimism, and a growth mindset. They are necessary for your success.
Hope is more than just a simple desire for something to happen. Hope is an expectation or belief that what you desire will indeed happen. As such, there is an anticipation that you will be successful. Whether you are actively dealing with employment challenges or seeking to better support those who are, put hope into action through career management strategies that extend across work, life, and learning domains.
Optimism is having confidence about a future outcome being successful. In fact, it was the single best predictor of career success and work satisfaction. Many believe that optimism is something that can be learned; consequently, with practice, you too can strengthen your optimism. It’s important, however, to avoid unrealistic or “Pollyanna-ish” optimism. Instead, ensure optimism is rooted in reality.
Lastly, a growth mindset is one that embraces challenges as learning opportunities. Individuals who adopt a growth mindset see themselves as active agents in creating change in their situation and circumstances. In contrast, with a fixed mindset, an individual sees themselves as unable to make change. There is no visioning without the possibility of creation.
If you are to engage in the visioning process, you’ll find that the ideas of hope, optimism, and a growth mindset are necessary conditions.
Choose 1 or 2 of the case examples to review. Identify how hope, optimism, and a growth mindset were present.
The end product of visioning might look different depending on which group you represent. We’ve included some examples for your consideration.
Individuals may craft a personal vision statement, create a vision board, or adopt a personal statement/motto to express their vision. Refer back to the example provided earlier of Sally, the individual with a traumatic brain injury. Her motto was: simple, sustainable creation, and independent living.
As an individual, the following reflective prompts can support visioning:
Consider the list of reflective prompts for individuals and record some of your thoughts.
Workplaces often express their visions through corporate values, mission statements, and strategic plans. Recently there has been a shift towards organizations being sustainable, ethical, socially responsible, and inclusive. This is good news for members of equity-deserving groups who have been traditionally under-represented within the workforce. As a workplace, however, it is important for this to go further than just incorporating buzzwords. Employees will know rather quickly if there is a disconnect between the corporate values/priorities and the day-to-day realities within a workplace and corporate policies/procedures. They can sniff out inauthentic and disingenuous visions.
Refer back to the example provided earlier of Yara, the grocery store manager. Her mission was to work closely with those previous employees who struggled in more traditional, restrictive employment settings, to create a space where they can thrive and grow. This was derived from her own experiences and desire to create something better.
As a workplace, the following reflective prompts can support visioning.
Consider the list of reflective prompts for workplaces and record some of your thoughts.
As communities comprise a diverse set of individuals or groups, the resulting visions might be expressed in many different ways – perhaps visual representations or written statements, mottos, or values. Refer back to the example provided earlier of Jonathan, the long-haul trucker whose sister had a life-changing injury. As he works to support her (and others like her), he identified the core values of empathy, kindness, flexibility, and independence.
As communities, the following reflective prompts can support visioning.
Consider the list of reflective prompts for communities and use the space here to record some of your thoughts.
After working through the reflective activities embedded in this resource, we hope that a clearer vision has emerged – one that is rooted in a genuine sense of self, whether you represent an individual with a disabling condition or a workplace or community seeking to support them.
If you’re still uncertain, we recommend reaching out to a trusted friend, colleague, or peer to provide some further insight. They may be able to help uncover something that remains hidden to you.
Also keep in mind that visioning isn’t a one-time event – it’s not an item on a checklist that is forgotten after it’s ticked off. Visions integrate what we know about ourselves now, and will learn about ourselves in the future, as we are constantly evolving creatures in dynamic environments.
Consider the complex and interconnected factors at play – whether they are internal or external. These “systems” shape our experiences, perceptions, and visions of the future. As such, visioning is an emerging, dynamic process which may never be “done.” Allocate space to re-visit or re-evaluate your vision from time to time.
Some clues that your vision may no longer fit you include feeling:
Use the following prompts to summarize your visioning activities
In a few words or sentences, describe your vision at the moment.
In what ways does it feel most suitable to express your vision (e.g., in pictures/drawings/logos or words/mottos/statements)?
How will you know when you need to revisit your vision (e.g., what will be the clues)?
How will you build space in your life to proactively engage in visioning?
To ensure the “system” is functioning in a positive and effective manner, all groups need to work together – disjointed, isolated efforts won’t effectively bridge the disconnect.
