A solo YouTube coaching session by James Laughlin on the importance of a clear five-year leadership/personal vision and how to craft it. Laughlin explains visioning as a retrospective exercise (sit five years ahead and describe the last five years), stresses clarity over vagueness, links vision to daily focus and momentum, and prompts listeners to define what they want, why they want it, and what sacrifices they’re willing to make. The episode is the first in a five-week series introducing Laughlin’s Success Planning Method (SPM).
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Welcome back to Lead On Purpose. Today we're going to look at how to craft your vision. Look, I've worked with leaders of all backgrounds, people who are running Formula One teams, people who are running countries, people who are running small companies, or people who are just trying to be better parents and run their family. The one thing that they all have in common when they're not operating well, is uncertainty. They are uncertain about where they're headed, they're uncertain about what the next move might look like. And on the flip side, the leaders who I look at and work with that are achieving incredible things. They're very clear, they're decisive about where they're headed. So over the next five weeks in these solo casts, I'm going to be sharing with you the proven success planning method. Spm. I call it the Success Planning method. It's something I use with all of my clients to help them get an incredible vision and then bring it to life day to day. Because sometimes a grand vision is so hard to actually break into bite sized chunks. So in this first session, we're going to look at visioning. Right, and what is visioning? Visioning is you taking a moment to get clear on your vision. You know, I've had different times in my life where I've had to stop and get clear. As a youngster, when I was a drummer, you know, I was 9 or 10 years old, I thought, why am I doing this? Where's it all headed? Well, one, I enjoy it. It's good, it's good fun. I'm sure some of you feel the same way about your work and your career. It's fun, you enjoy it, but where's it all headed? So at 9 or 10, I decided I want to be the world Solo Drumming Juvenile Champion. That's what I wanted so bad. But I was super clear on that. And that vision allowed me to then reverse engineer a very simple plan every single day to step towards that. And so it took me a few years, but in the end I was really fortunate to be crowned one World Solo Drumming Champion. Now, I've looked at different parts of my life where I've had clear vision and where I've lacked it. And where I've lacked it, I've had the results that reflect that. But where I've been so radically clear, I've had results that really reflect that as well. So today, right now, in this moment, you've made the space to do this. I'm going to ask you the same questions I ask my clients. This is the most Crucial one. It's five years from now. You and I were sitting here chatting together and I say, how have the last five years been? I want you to get a pen and paper and I want you to write down the last five years have been.
I want you to describe how they've been in the most incredible terms. And I don't want you to think of any obstacles, any potential hazards. I only want you to think of in the ideal world my last five years have been, and describe them. Right? Take a moment to do that. Hit pause if you need to. I want you to take a moment just to do this right now and think about your physical self, your financial self, your spiritual self, your relational self. You know, the relationships you have with people, with your work, your career, your adventure. What does the next five years is it going to look like? But I want you to do it retrospectively. So you're sitting five years out from now, looking back, going, the last five years were phenomenal because describe what made it incredible. Okay, that is your starting point. Most people will just fast forward, go to the next video scroll, and just do what the rest of the world does. If you're a high performer, if you care about your future, you'll take the time to get clear on what the future looks like, plain and simple. I'm yet to work with a team or a high performer who lacks vision if they're not getting the results they want, Generally they have a vague vision at the start. But vague visions create vague results time and time again. So when I work with people, the first thing I want to get clear on is, where are we going? I don't want to work with you unless I know where we're going because then we can partner and work together and move towards that outcome. What is your five year vision? I call it visioning. What you see in your mind you can hold in your hand. That's right. Whatever you can see upstairs, you can hold downstairs, right? Think of the device that you're watching this on right now, whether it's a phone, laptop computer, whatever that was. Once in someone's mind, they thought of that phone or that device. Then they brought it to life in the real world. Your vision for your life is no different. At a friend recently, about three years ago, who wanted to really level up their life. So I challenged them to create a vision of their life for five years and bring it back right back to this year. And they did it. And they created a visual imagery of it like a vision board. And they went through the year they kept looking at their vision board, they kept thinking about where they were headed. A year later we touched base. I said, well, how you going? And they were beaming. They had somehow in their mind magically, miraculously achieved everything on their vision board. There was no luck about it. It was intentional. What you place in your mind, you move towards. And some people will say where your focus goes, your energy flows, your vision is no different. Do you have a vision? If you don't, then you're going to be going from pillar to post. You're going to be looking for every opportunity that comes your way. You're probably easily distracted. People who don't have a clear vision spend a lot more time scrolling, a lot more time netflixing. Not to say that those things are bad, but when they're done over and over, to me that says you're a mediocre performer. But when you're a high performer and you're clear on your vision, you don't waste time wasting time. You get busy being focused on what life is all about. And that's your vision and bringing it to life. So this first session I want you to think about what is my vision? Why is it important? That's the next question. Now you know what you want. Your five year vision, you got clear on that. Second question here is how badly do you want it? Why do you want it? Take a moment to think about that. How badly do I want that? It's a nice to have. If it's a nice to have. Cool. You're not getting it. I'm telling you that now. You're not getting it. But if it's, I will do anything to get that, I will work hard, I will do anything it takes to get there, then you know that you're going to move towards it. Why is it so important? Why are those financial, those social, those spiritual, those relational goals that you've set in your vision, why are they important? Do they make you feel a certain way? Do they mean that it will impact the people around you in an amazing way? Take the time to build that emotional juice. You'll need emotional juice when you get tired, when things start to maybe go in different directions and life throws ambushes at you, you'll need that emotional juice. Last question for you to answer. This is one most people don't like answering. They this is the crucial one. This is the difference that makes the difference. If you can answer this, you're well on your way. How much are you willing to suffer to bring your vision to life? So if you're writing that down. That's how much am I willing to suffer to bring my vision to life. If you don't like the word suffer, change it to sacrifice. But they're both the same suffering and sacrificing one and the same. What are you going to do? What are you not going to do? What are you going to miss out on to bring your vision to life? If you're clear on that, what you want, how badly you want it, and how much you're willing to suffer to get there, you're well on your way to bringing a world class life right into your realm and your life is probably already great. That's why you're watching stuff like this to develop yourself and people that are interpersonal growth generally have great momentum already. But keep it up because you can atrophy and slip up real quick. What are you willing to do? Are you willing to miss out on maybe some extra coffees in the morning? Are you willing to miss out on a social gathering on a Friday beers night? What are you willing to do to do that? Next session we're going to go into the next step of success planning Method book. Don't show up for it unless you've done this. This is the crucial piece. Get excited about what life's going to look like in five years time. I just want to say well done for sitting down, committing to this, doing the work. If you haven't hit pause, do it. Bring that vision to life. And I look forward to seeing you in next week's session. But for now, please get out there and lead your life on purpose.
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