It’s not Mission, or Vision, it’s Promised Land!
Is it Mission or Vision? Over the last couple of years, I've noticed blurred lines here, adding a lot of wandering for the people I serve (as their coach). Well, and for that matter even myself. Luckily, for me and hopefully them, in our work together, we've come up with a way to add a bit more clarity, by inventing a 3rd category, their #PromisedLand. With your promised land defined, it's far far easier to filter, decide and then move. To stay on mission, and keep your vision.
And, here's a little practice exercise to get ya to play and make a pass at painting your promised land. Click Here (Hope you find this helpful.)
Missions and Vision, the problem with them, neither one is your Promised Land
Your Missions
We seem to land on the concept of our mission with our purpose talk a lot. So this is a good place to start. Please let me give you this definition to make differentiating between mission and vision easier. Missions (plural) are your time-bound sets of the actions you’ll take, to achieve your objectives that move the world to your visionary place, your vision. I say plural because sometimes your best choice is to scrap or modify a mission, so you can keep your vision.
Remember, if you die, so does your mission. And I am considering the “die” part as in spirit, or your will, and or, towards your physical death. If your mission is singular and ultimate, you'll turn it into a suicide mission, or quit, and live a lesser life (where ya let part of yourself die). So, yes, we (in working together with my clients) added an "s" to make it plural, missions.
Don't get stuck in an unwinnable mission!
Nobody wins from suicide missions.
Your Vision
Vision, the concept often swapped synonymously with Mission. The world as it will be from your vision! As only you or your tribe sees it!
Here, it's easy for you to disappear in the abstraction of your own vision and say, "Who am I to have such a grand vision, what was I thinking..." Time and time again, our vision of world change goes far beyond our individual capability. I’ve been in this place. My clients have been there.
And then there’s when pursuing the vision comes into conflict with staying in belonging with the ones we love. I recently chatted with a woman who ended up losing her wife. The love of her life, sacrificed for her vision. Her words, “It wasn’t worth it,” came across as a soul impaled by grief.
We dream by design! We dream huge! We aspire. And alone, we get smaller as our incredible vision for the world gets farther out of our reach in our limiting beliefs.
Don't get lost in your vision!
You are as important as your purpose.
Your Promised Land
That, "there's no better" place in your visionary world where you're with whom you love and belong, and doing what you love! You don't go to your promised land alone! If you do go alone, you’re Tom Hanks in Castaway, or, in solitary confinement where, in about 21 days, you’ll start going crazy.
You gotta choose, from your different layers in belonging, and be very specific here about who’s going to go there with you. And who you’re going to go with. They're the ones that if they're not with you, then this ain’t your promised land. If you don’t believe together, that it’s the best place ever to do what you’re doing, it ain’t your promised land. Think of it as your belonging and believing filter.
Family
Friends
Business partners
Customers... etc
Live Fully From Your Promised Land
Click to make bigger.
Live from it in the now! That’s your objective. This keeps the "You" in your vision and to know when to scrap a mission, and create another. Your promised land keeps the, “with who you love and what you love” in play.
Losing yourself in the pursuit of making the vision happen, aka your purpose, usually comes with a high cost. The loss of the people you love and belong with, and, not living your dreams. Oh, and less than stellar health.
My own personal experience, as well as every client I worked with, and every person in my care, when I was in a leadership role, suffered a related loss or degraded quality of life.
For your vision, your work emanates from your promised land so that your efforts don’t create an intrinsic or internal conflict that sabotages your ability to make your vision for the world happen.
When your missions, those time-bound sets of actions you take, contribute to your promised land, you’ll have an easier time keeping a clear focus and continue moving towards your promised land.
Your success, well, it starts with your promised land. And when your pursuits emanate from there, life gets way better and easier.
Painting Your Promised Land
So, start by painting your promised land, else, you’ll wander in the wilderness, aimlessly. And by painting, that means you actually have to talk about it. When your words leave your head in conversation, your promised land moves from mere spinning in your imagination, to becoming something that exists, that you can focus upon. See it beforehand. Some of the people I worked with created there’s in a couple of weeks, and several took 7 to 8 weeks. There’s a fair amount of wandering in the wilderness of yourself. I speak from personal experience.
This means, think of it as painting a masterpiece. Something you care so much about and that you’ll focus on completely. A painted masterpiece is full of layers, some turn out wonderful, some get painted over, because they’re mistakes, or, sometimes we see a new and better way to do it. Or, we got clarity along the way. Sometimes, the paths, or the brushstrokes themselves, lead to new ways to get your promised land. That's your life. You are a masterpiece creating a masterpiece.
Define who you’ll go with into your no better place. You can’t imagine going there without them. Real, known, actual? And, those you’ll choose to meet later. Family, friends, business partners, customers/clients… etc.
Define what you’re doing, that you love. That you can’t imagine not doing. If it’s, “ {meh} I could see myself doing that,” the bar might be too low for defining that as part of your promised land.
Do not fall into the temptation to make “a plan” as you’re creating. I repeat. Do not fall into the temptation to make a plan. You will shift the focus from your promised land back to your current limiting beliefs. If you’re talking to someone who keeps focusing on the limits and why you should scale-back your promised land, you’re probably conversing with the wrong person. Plans are fixed mindset traps that make us see things from limiting scarcity beliefs. Just because you can’t see how to get there now that doesn’t mean ya can’t get there.
After a time, you’ll eventually land in, “This is it! With these people with whom I love and belong, doing this! And the world is going to be amazing for it!” But that’ll be after the battle of, “is it this or is it that? This person or that person? Your promised land yes comes from really wrestling with which Yes’s are actually No’s, and which No’s are actually Not Yet’s.
After you’ve done this, your promised land will keep you directly connected to your vision, personally. It’ll ground you to who you love and belong and what you love to do.
Thanks for reading. If I can help you paint your promised land, get you to an easier place to perform better, or you just want to connect, give me a holler. Catch ya, Paul.