To set a vision for your life, you have to believe that you can achieve something more than you have today.

That might sound hard.

How do you feel today? Do you feel as if you are capable to do the work toward a big vision? Or do you feel that there’s very little you can give? Or do you feel like no matter what you do there is no hope that the thing you’re dreaming of gets closer? It doesn’t matter how you answer this question, as long as you’re honest. 

What is the thing you want?

Everyone has dreams. If you don’t right now, sit quietly for 15 minutes… you will think of something you want in the future (even if you feel completely incapable of achieving it today). You can set a big or small vision for your future. Maybe you want to secure a college scholarship in the next 2 years, or maybe you want to have a good weekend of games this weekend. So if you are willing to accept that there is something you want, you can get yourself closer to the life of your dreams. Read on to find out how to overcome the obstacles you will face

What will you have to overcome

When you have a vision, there will be numerous obstacles you face.  The first set of obstacles are the obstacles to creating a vision for yourself in the first place. If you don’t feel connected to a clear vision, think about what is causing that. Some things that typically stop athletes from having a vision are:

  1. missing out on one goal or dream, only to not set another one (quitting, lack of resilience)
  2. having a lack of confidence in yourself (^related to why most people quit)
  3. Being in emotionally stressful/challenging times
  4. having (normal) uncertainty about your future and not being able to commit to certainty
  5. confusing what other people want with what you want (not knowing what you want)
  6. carrying around shame and guilt from the past
  7. having unexplored fear about the future

In this article, it would be impossible to explore all seven reasons you cannot set a good vision in depth. So instead, this article will give a thought provoking question to ask if you think that you are not pursuing a vision for one of the seven reasons. 

Seven critical questions
  1. If you have truly already missed out on your dream today, could you live the rest of your life without setting a new one? If the answer is no, stop waiting to find a new dream. Go looking for one.
  2. Do you think that successful people who have come before you ever felt doubt? At what point would someone like that have felt doubt and how is it similar to the situation that has you doubting yourself today?
  3. If you feel badly about the way things are going, what one simple thing could you see changing the outcome? (hint: think about the things that you do most frequently and how you could change them)
  4. What would your life feel like in 5 years if you either (or both) work hard in one or more aspects of your life and/or begin to discover things about yourself that will tell you what kind of like you want (including what to work hard at)?
  5. What is one thing that you want that other people do not seem to want? Use this answer to understand what inputs will be required to create this outcome.
  6. What is something that still upsets you? What can you learn about yourself from it if you think about it or talk about it with the right people? The idea is to feel better, to forgive yourself or others, to make amends where needed, and to eventually let go.
  7. What scares you the most about your future? How can you prevent it from happening and fix it if it does happen? This is one way to make a fear smaller in your own mind so it is easier to take action.
Your vision

After you have asked yourself some critical questions, take the time to think about your vision. Come back to it as much as you can in quiet moments in your day. A vision is something that you maintain and update. It requires you to act to get closer to it consistently. A vision is great, but it is useless without action. 

If you don’t act toward it, the vision will fade. If the obstacles you face are too big, the vision will fade. If you set a vision based on what other people want and you don’t enjoy pursuing it, the vision will fade.  If you don’t take the time to develop a vision in the first place, then you cannot even act toward it or overcome obstacles like doubt, uncertainty, fear, shame, and guilt. 

Asking your self some good questions is a strong starting place.