Do you sometimes feel like you’re doing everything right, and you’re achieving your daily goals, but something is still amiss? Do you feel like no matter how well you’re doing, you’re just treading water, not really getting anywhere?
If so, you’re probably confusing a vision with a set of goals, but that's OK.
Most people do.
Understanding Vision and Goals
Over the next several weeks, I'm going to talk about vision, what it means, and how you form and achieve one. If this all seems a little daunting, don’t worry.
I’ll break it down step-by-step.
First, take a look at the definitions of several terms specific to understanding the differences between vision and goals so there’s no misunderstanding.
These terms come from Don Hofstrand of Iowa State University.
Upper Level
1. A Vision Statement
Think of your vision statement as the big picture of what you want to achieve. For example, your vision statement could say this:
“Own and operate a successful restaurant.”
2. A Mission Statement
A general announcement of how you will achieve the vision is a mission statement. For instance, if you wanted to have that restaurant, it might be something like this:
“To serve high-quality, locally-sourced food at competitive prices in a friendly environment.”
3. Core Values.
Your core values describe how you will behave during the process of the mission. Within a restaurant scenario, your core values might be these:
“Do as little damage to the environment as possible” and
“Provide a living wage to all full time employees.”
Last month, I talked to you about creating a personal mission statement. If you’ve created one, it likely includes your vision, mission, and core values.
If you haven’t read that article yet, I urge you read it. To access it, you can click on the article title below:
Secondary Level
1. Strategies
There are one or more ways (strategies) to use the mission statement to achieve the vision. Although you only have one vision statement and one mission statement, they each may contain several strategies. Again, in the restaurant analogy, your strategies might include something similar to these:
“Develop relationships with local farmers” and
“Have the finest waitstaff.”
2. Goals
Your goals are what need to be accomplished to implement a strategy. For your restaurant, that could include goals like to these:
“Meet five local farmers per week” or
“Hire only waitstaff that has at least one year experience in food service.”
3. Objectives
Specific milestones with a specific timeline for achieving a goal are objectives. Consider this objective, which would work well in a restaurant scenario.
“Develop a menu at least one month before the restaurant opens”
4. Action plans
Your action plans are specific plans on how you will reach an objective. With the menu examples just mentioned, your action plan might say something like this:
“Sit down with the chef at least one hour per day until the menu is created.”
Obviously, if you’re not opening a restaurant these statements would all be different, but I used them as examples to show you that goals are secondary-level achievements.
Your vision is at the upper level.
Think Now About What You Want Later
First, look at your dreams or your end-line goals as visions. Your goal isn’t to retire with $1 million saved. That’s your vision. Your goals compliment your strategy to get that money into the bank. What strategies are you going to implement to save that much? How will your goals implement those strategies?
I’ll talk more about goals, objectives, and action plans over the next three blogs. For now, just think about your larger vision, mission, and core values.