Vision Day 2018/2019: Intro

Let me start by making a bold statement: New Years Resolutions are stupid. There are plenty of options out there for reflection and goal setting, but here I want to talk about one particular reflection and goal setting exercise I’ve been doing the past few years that has brought me some success and lots of reflection: Vision Day.

Let me start by making a bold statement: New Years Resolutions are stupid. Have you ever made a New Years Resolution and then failed to follow through? You aren’t alone: stats show that 4 out of 5 people are going to fail to maintain them.

I know what you’re thinking: “I’m different! I set SMART Goals!” or whatever tricks of the goal-setting trade. If it works for you, great. In my experience, the pop-culture of resolutions don’t tend to lead to people making targeted goals; instead, they make vague visionary statements that they would like to achieve with no real plan.

So what do we do if resolutions are dumb? Give up and crawl into a hole and wait until 2020 comes around? NO! We are all about a growth mindset so instead, we find another way.

There are plenty of options out there for reflection and goal setting, but here I want to talk about one particular reflection and goal setting exercise I’ve been doing the past few years that has brought me some success and lots of reflection: Vision Day.

What is Vision Day?

Vision Day was started by Andy Drish and I encountered it when I was part of The Foundation. It’s essentially a day you take to really examine your life in three phases:

Past: What happened this year and what can you learn from it?
Present: How do you feel about certain areas in your life right now?
Future: Where would you like to go in the next year?

I won’t go into deep detail here, since it is much easier to show rather than tell, which is exactly what I will be doing in the next few posts – breaking down each section and reflecting on my results from doing Vision Day.

If you are interested in learning more about it in depth, there is a webinar that leads you through the main exercise here: Vision Day Replay

Why Vision Day?

It’s in my nature to be goal-oriented. To add even a well-defined resolution on top of my goals would not be much of a departure from my modus operandi. The reason I really enjoy the process of Vision Day is because it is about 80% taking inventory and personal reflection with 20% goal setting. By using most of the time looking inward, I am able to more authentically and powerfully create goals that I believe will move the needle rather than surface level desires.

In 2015 going into 2016, I set an intention of making 2016 my “Year of Living Freely”. I wrote down in my notebook that this meant:

Freedom of location
Freedom from the fear of loneliness
Freedom to carve my own path in my career and life

Coincidentally, 2016 was the year:

I traveled the most I ever have to date (3 months abroad)
I made a ton of friends around the world I still talk to today
I developed ties with a girl who impacted me as a person
Achieved many of my bucket list items

I feel compelled to say I’m not a woo-woo believer in “you can manifest with thoughts”, but it was pretty scary how well it played out when I looked back on my 2015/2016 Vision Day. Maybe action followed thoughts? I don’t know but honestly, I don’t care since 2016 was easily the best year I’ve had since 2008. All I know is I’d like to repeat the results.

Gold Foil Balloons in the shape of 2019 — Photo by Jon Tyson

My Results

I’ve already done the entirety of Vision Day: 2018/2019 on my own, but I wanted to also write these posts for three reasons:

Accountability
Transparency
Inspiration

By making it publicly available and known what I want out of 2019, I am hoping my friends, family, and network will not only hold me accountable, but perhaps understand me a little better too. Finally, if I can inspire others to really reflect and go after their goals too, I won’t be alone in this pursuit of happiness 😉

Lone Traveler sitting on wall - Photo Credit: Joshua Earle — Photo Credit: Joshua Earle

Vision Day: Table of Contents

With vision day introduced now, I divided up the sections into separate posts since they are big. See below as I post them.

Thanks for reading and hope you gain insight from my own reflections!