☀️ Summer is just around the corner, and I'm sure a lot of you are putting together plans for vacations and beach trips. Imagine that you want to go on a roadtrip with your family. Your vision for this roadtrip is more than just making it from one place to another; you want to create fun-filled memories that will last a lifetime. So how can you turn this vision into action?
🎯 Your next step should be to come up with some goals for your trip. Goals are overarching, strategic objectives that contribute to your vision. They are measurable and outcomes focused, and they define what you want to achieve rather than how you do it. So in this case, your goal might be to travel from DC to the west coast over the summer break. This gives you a clear direction from your trip and something that is measurable.
📍Now you're ready to define your milestones. Milestones serve as progress markers and decision points, and they can serve as good times to evaluate your progress and adjust your course if needed. For your roadtrip, you decide on milestones such as Nashville so you can listen to some live country music, Denver to take a photo by the beautiful mountains, and Las Vegas so you can take the family to a magic show and maybe spoil yourselves with a buffet. These are key points of progress that mark your journey’s success and form your roadmap (we'll come back to this soon).
📝 To achieve your milestones, and ultimately your goals and vision, you’ll need to figure out which tasks you'll need to complete like packing your bags, booking hotels, refilling gas, stopping for snacks, and taking in scenic overlooks. Basically, these are the smaller and actionable steps that keep your journey on track.
This framework is something you can use for any initiative or project in your life. The overall process goes like this:
Define your vision statement and ultimate purpose for starting this initiative.
Set compelling and clear goals to steer your efforts.
Trace your route with strategic milestones that mark progress.
Break down the roadmap into actionable tasks.
It's about taking the driver's seat and turning your vision into focused action.
💬 "Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world."
-Joel Arthur Baker