Kevin Kruse shows you how to up your game in the new year with the Lewis Howes Vision Exercise.
___
Do you have a plan to go from “good” to “great” this year?
I know you’re already successful; you wouldn’t be reading this article if you weren’t already achieving at high levels. But how do you go from good to great?
I’ve often told people that my single biggest failure has been that my goals were never big enough; I settled for good instead of great. And this surprises people:
- Yes, I sold my business for almost $2 million at age 30, but my friends who had a greater overall vision sold their companies for 10 times that amount.
- Yes, my second book hit the New York Times bestseller list, but it quickly fell off the charts, as I didn’t have a greater vision around serving those readers as a tribe.
- Yes, I got married and had three wonderful kids, but I also got divorced, partly because I had no grand vision for my relationship.
Lewis Howes teaches this very thing in his book, The School of Greatness: A Real-World Guide To Living Bigger, Loving Deeper, and Leaving a Legacy. Howes, a former professional athlete and an Olympic hopeful, shares an eight-point plan gleaned from his own life experience as well as that of the dozens of great achievers he’s interviewed for his popular “School of Greatness” podcast.
- Create a vision
- Turn adversity into advantage
- Cultivate a champion’s mind-set
- Develop hustle
- Master your body
- Practice positive habits
- Build a winning team
- Be of service to others
The most important step of course—and the step I had been lacking for so many years—was the creation of a great vision.
You might have New Year’s resolutions to lose some weight, or to quit smoking. Good goals, but those alone won’t make you “great’ or give you a “great life.” What you need is an overarching vision. Howes clarifies the distinction between goals and vision:
A powerful vision emerges when we couple our dreams with a set of clear goals.
Howes also offers specific exercises to help you to identify what you want and why you want it.
Exercise #1: Your Certificate of Achievement (COA)
You have probably heard the solid advice to make your goals specific and write them down. Howes turns the dial to 11 by recommending that you not just print out your specific goal, but actually frame it as if it were a “Certificate of Achievement.” Imagine you have already accomplished the goal and have been awarded a certificate in recognition. Frame the COA and display it where you’ll see it every single day. Howes credits this practice with developing his public speaking skills to the point where he earned a $5,000 speaking gig after only 9 months.
Exercise #2: Perfect Day Itinerary (PDI)
If you have trouble getting at what truly motivates you, this exercise can quickly give you breakthroughs. If you could wave a magic wand and create a perfect day, what would it look like? It’s true we’ll want some variety in life, but in general, where do you want to live? Who do you want to spend your time with? How do you want to spend your time? Who do you want to serve and in what ways? After jotting down a paragraph or two at the general level, Howes recommends creating an actual itinerary for your “next perfect day”. How will you spend each waking hour in a way that will lead to your perfect life?
Exercise #3: Personal Principles Declaration (PPD)
Who will you be, even in the toughest moments? Some people have a personal mission statement, and others a list of personal values, but Howes’ PPD is designed to force you to declare your best self. He shares his own PPD to serve as an example:
- Love myself, everyone, and everything.
- Be in service to support others and the world.
- Always give my best and strive for greatness in everything I do.
- Live in abundance.
- Create a win/win with everything.
Exercise #4: Your Personal Statement Plan (PSP)
The PSP, as Howes calls it, brings all the elements together into one action plan. He offers a fill-in-the-blank template that enables you to list specific actions you will take to achieve your top goals, and “who you will need to be” in order to manifest them.
Remember, good is the enemy of great. It’s far easier for us to settle for what we currently have and who we currently are. It’s especially easy if we’re already doing “good” by our own estimation and in the eyes of other. But to truly make an impact on the world, to truly live to our full potential, we must cast aside the good and create a specific compelling vision for greatness.
Photo—dicau58/Flickr
Kevin Kruse is a New York Times bestselling author of six books, including 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management: The Productivity Habits of 7 Billionaires, 13 Olympic Athletes, 29 Straight-A Students, and 239 Entrepreneurs. Kevin is also an Inc 500 entrepreneur and is the founder of The Kruse Group.
Great article. Thank you for sharing your story and Lewis Howes’ exercises!