RUN THE POINT: Where there is no vision, the people perish

Where There is no Vision, the People Perish

Below: guest arriving at my, "Come as you wish" party

For the past 6yrs I've toyed with the idea of having a goal setting party at the end of the year. I thought it would be cool to pull people together to create, share and hold each other accountable for new year's goals (as opposed to resolutions, which I define as something you stop doing by March.

Over the years I've fleshed out some of the details to include people bringing all of their old failures and hang ups from the current year written on a piece of paper. I would then have them tear it up or burn it as we prepared for the new goals that await them. Once that was done we would go through a brief goal setting workshop and then start creating our goals for the upcoming year. Because it was being done in a group we could potentially break up into pairs and follow up every 2mths for encouragement, updates and adjustments as needed. Maybe after 6mths we could reconvene as a whole group.

Remember, this is all in theory, I never followed through. Why? you ask. I just could not figure out all of the details for the moving parts but would revisit it every year as we got closer to New Year's. Too much complexity for my simple mind, so I got help. I shared what I was trying to do with one of my mentors and they quickly told me that I was making it too complicated. The self imposed complication stopped me from moving forward every single year. I decided to take his advice and flipped the format. Instead of looking to have a goal setting party which would involve follow-up throughout the year, I went with a vision board party instead. "Come as you wish," was created. The idea was to come as you wish to see yourself in 5-10yrs.

The Layout:
Below: My living room w/ snacks and a completed vision board on the couch.

We transformed our home to a vision generating laboratory. On the main floor you could find a deck of cards with interesting facts about different places to visit in the world as well as cards called, "table topics." If you haven't seen "Table Topic" you might want to go and check them out. They are cards with questions designed to spark conversation, for e.g. "What is the biggest obstacle that is getting in the way of your dream?" I highly recommend it as a conversation starter at your next group gathering. I also invited a speaker to be part of the action and talk a little bit about his entrepreneurial journey and goal setting techniques.
Downstairs we had the Vision Creation Center. Construction paper, scissors, glue, magazines, markers, and crayons allowed the artist to come out in all who attended as they worked on creating a vision board for themselves. I had the guilty pleasure of witnessing adults focused on creating the visions they saw for themselves (A single tear runs down my face). The feedback overall was very positive and look forward to bringing more people together to create their vision.

Lessons Learned

The essence: Sometimes the essence of an ideas is more important than following it to the letter. I wanted a goal setting party, but I got a vision board party. The bigger picture was to have people think about their future and where they see themselves. Mission accomplished.
Keep talking about it: I shared my idea with several folks in my inner circle and received various feedback. The information they provided allowed me to morph things and make my own ideas better. Word of warning: some will not see the idea or vision you have and may attempt to kill it. If in your heart you believe you should move forward, remember this phrase, "They won't all see it as I do, but then again they don't all have my vision."