Action Vision

This is episode 166 of the Empowered Team Podcast. Psst. The zenith is coming. The most incredible life changing retreat in Sayulita, Mexico. That's right, the Zenith is coming. To learn more, head to www.theempowered.ca zenith. Learn more. It is life. Chang. Welcome to the Empowered Team podcast where we explore how to optimize your performance in career, sport and life. And now, your host, executive coach and life strategist, Kari Schneider. Welcome. It is so exciting to dive into this topic, especially considering that we are about to go into a brand new year. I can't even believe it's about to be 2022. So I think that this topic is going to be fantastic for people to be able to really get what. Get what they want. Get what you want. What do you want for 2022? So this topic is called Action Vision. And this is very specific because this tends to be the spot that I find so many of us get stuck. I've gotten stuck here. Many of my clients have gotten stuck in this one zone. And so I'm really pinpointing into this one zone so that people can have more success, especially with this new year coming up. So this is called Action Vision. So I want you to picture an athlete, an athlete that is a triathlete. So the sport of triathlon, a sport that has incredible amounts, incredible amounts of training, volumes of training. They want to compete at a national level. They want to be so good at a national level that they've got a shot for an Olympic Bertha. They want to go to the Olympics, see themselves competing at the Olympics, and they've had this vision. They can see themselves doing this. And in this vision, they are succeeding and they've made the team and they can see themselves at the Olympics. It's all in their vision. Their vision of this is very, very powerful, very compelling, very exciting. And that's their vision for this far off future. However, what happens for them is that although they love to train and they love the swimming and the biking and the running that come with that particular sport and even the other work that needs to be done, there's a whole bunch of things that aren't being done for this particular athlete. They're doing the training for the sport. They're spending the hours on the bike, spending the hours in the pool, spending the hours running that are necessary. However, they're not doing a plan that really has all of those things optimized. They're not getting the quality sleep every night that needs to happen in order to have the recovery. So they're seeing small injuries coming in, they're not preparing their food that would lead to the kind of recovery and the kind of nourishment that they need for the performance they'd like. They're not getting the rehab or the prehab is what we would call in order to have their body fully ready for all the training that they're doing. So there's a number of actions that aren't being taken in order for them to get to that next level. They're also not clear on what competitions need to happen, what success needs to happen in order to get to that bigger set spot of the Olympics or a national team and then to the Olympics. So there's this big gap in their plan or their vision, first of all their vision and then not having a plan for that gap in the middle. Now this is where so many people get stuck. So this is what I call triple vision. And if I do a presentation on triple vision or I work with some clients on triple vision, and I've worked within a group of people and I have everybody visualize what we call the now vision. So what needs to be done on the day to day basis, their next vision, the imperative part that needs to happen in order to get to the last part, which is their far vision. So the example I always give for this is when I was working with the women's national hockey team leading into the Sochi 2014 Olympics and the triple vision. So the far vision was an Olympic gold medal at that Olympics. That was the far vision. The closer vision, which was the next vision, that part was qualifying for the Olympics at a world championship. So there had to be a world championship qualifier in order to even make it to the Olympics. And the now vision was the practice and the training and the nutrition and the sleep, the everything that needed to happen on the day in and day out in order to get to that next vision of the World Championships and the far vision of the Olympic gold medal. So that would be triple vision. That's the now vision, the next vision and the far vision. And what we typically do is work backwards from that incredible far vision to see what needs to be happening all on the now, day to day basis. So the reason I'm explaining triple vision is because with most people, when I ask them to visualize triple vision, the now vision, the next vision, and the far vision, the majority of people have clarity with the far vision, especially with the far vision, the thing they really, really want. And they often have a lot of clarity with the now Vision as well, what has to happen on the day to day basis, however, the one that they're not seeing clearly is the next vision, the one that's in the middle, the one that is the imperative step to get to the far vision so that next vision isn't clear. So I'm going to ask this question. If the next vision isn't clear, how, how pertinent, how accurate do you think the now vision is? How accurate do you think the now actions are if there's no clarity on the next vision? So this is what happens to the majority of people is that they get foggy on the next vision, even though they have clarity on the far vision. And when I expand on this, what it looks like for us when we're in this safe zone, to let our mind expand, to let our brain explore, to let our vision reach to the edges when we're in this safe spot, to be able to really imagine, to really allow ourselves to dream. When we do that, we come up with the most beautiful vision, the most beautiful images of our life. We can see what we want it to look like, we can feel what it feels like in that space. We have this reach and expansion and imagination. And yet when we get into the now time, when we get into some of the actions that it takes to get to that far vision and we get the discomfort of what those actions feel like, then our brain, instead of being so imaginative and motivating and expansive, our brain shuts us down because we've stepped into some uncomfortable action. So then our brain says, nope, stop, please don't go forward. I don't like this. And what that looks like for the triathlete example that I gave is that this person would have that clarity on that far vision. But when it comes to the day to day, what would happen is that they would feel that it was uncomfortable to say no to certain things in order to go to bed at the right time. That would help them for their training. It would feel too chaotic in order to plan their food or their meals, to have what they needed on the day to day basis. They didn't want to get uncomfortable and ask who and how and what needed to happen when, what competition needed to be in place before making a national team? How, what were the numbers that they needed to achieve at what type of event before making a national team. So there's a lot of dreaming going on, but not a lot of the uncomfortable action that needed to happen in order to make the next vision really clear. The far vision was very clear, but. But the next vision, like most people, was really foggy. Take this to a different example. This might look like the entrepreneur that really wants to go for a amazing business, a business that's going to not only get started and created by them, but also grow, grow to the next level, grow into a company, grow into something that has many employees, that has growth and expanded systems, something that's a viable thing for the human race. People can get real value from the product that's been developed, something that grows so big that it can be sold for millions of dollars. Now, this kind of scenario is what many entrepreneurs dream of. And they might have clarity on what their product looks like, who it's helping in the world, the vision of what, what it can do and why it doesn't, and who it helps and how it expands, and the millions that it sells for and the big companies that want to buy it. So an entrepreneur might have all of that clarity. However, they may not see clearly that uncomfortable zone in the next vision that comes with having to do the capital raising, having to get investors involved, the uncomfortable presentations, the discomfort of hiring and firing the right staff that needs to be put in place in order for this entity to grow. What it takes to grow themselves as an individual, as a leader, the uncomfortable position they might be putting themselves in financially for extended periods of time to see this example of their brainchild come off the ground and grow into a viable business, a viable product. So there's a lot of in between steps that are so uncomfortable that that next vision is very foggy. And again, seeing the now vision or the now actions become actions that may not be the actions that will actually take the company or take the person to the next level. So consider this for your own life. This is where you would really take a look at something you want for this next year coming up, something you really, really want for 2022, you might have some real clarity around it. It might have to do with your health, it might have to do with a family vacation. It might have to do with somewhere that you want your company to go or grow or achieve. And any of those visions, you may have real clarity around it. And now the task, one of the hardest tasks is to really see clearly what has to happen as a prerequisite before you can get to that beautiful far vision. What has to happen in the meantime, that if it doesn't happen, then the far vision doesn't happen. So with that example of the Olympics, if the world championship event, if there wasn't a qualifying win in that event, then the Olympics couldn't even happen because the team would not be qualified for the Olympics. So what is your qualifier? What needs to pre qualify you for that vision that you have down the road? For instance, if it was somebody who wanted to run a marathon, they might have the next vision of running a 10k at a certain pace in order to pre qualify them for a Boston Marathon. Boston actually has a qualifying, a pre qualifying time of a marathon or specific event so that you have to pre qualify for a Boston Marathon. So that would be an excellent example of a necessary next vision that has to have real clarity. So what for you, for your vision, that thing that you really want, what is the prerequisite that has to happen in order for you to get to that stage? If you want a hundred clients by the end of this year, 100 new clients, well, the prerequisite might be that you have to have 50 by mid year in order to really have that tangible option of getting to 100 by the end of the year. So decide, get clarity on that next vision. Because if you don't have clarity on the next vision, you won't have a clue as to what real actions need to be taken in order to get to the long term goal. What happens for people every day is day in and day out, the actions that are being taken are often missing the mark for what they really want for their long term goal. This is why this whole podcast is called Action Vision is because we often go and we're taking all kinds of actions. We're being a manager of actions instead of a manager of results. And in a manager of actions we feel like we've accomplished so much. We've done all the things, we put the dishes away, we tidied the desk, we did all of the necessary planning in our calendar and we didn't actually reach out to new clients. We didn't actually get new leads for the business. We didn't actually get to bed on time for our best wake up for our training. We didn't actually plan the meals out and make the meals that we needed to eat for the rest of the week in order to reach our nutritional goals or our weight loss goals that we're going for. So take a look at what that next vision is and once you get real clarity on it, you realize that the actions that you're taking right now are probably maintaining your now. The actions that you're taking right now are likely keeping you exactly where you are. The actions right now are likely not uncomfortable enough to get you to the next vision. Let Alone your far vision, this is where action vision comes in. The actions that you're taking now are not the ones that are likely to get you to your next vision unless you're feeling really uncomfortable. And they're moving the needle, they're moving the needle in the direction that you want to go. You can see that dial, you can see that needle starting to move. The gauge is going up because you're taking the uncomfortable action. Now that's what it takes to get to your next vision. And that next vision is a prerequisite to get to your long term goals. So in the now actions, are they uncomfortable? If they're not uncomfortable, chances are you're not going to be able to see yourself into envision yourself and action yourself into where you want to go. So for instance, if we go back to that triathlete, they believed that they were doing the right actions in the moment because they were working out, because they put a lot of hours into training. But that was a false belief in that. They didn't understand that in order to get to a higher level of competition, in order to qualify for perhaps a national team, make the times that they needed to, they weren't really embracing that the volume of training wasn't what mattered. They could train till the cows come home. It was how they were training, it was when they were training, it was how much sleep they were getting, it was the nutrition they were taking in. So the uncomfortable action for that particular example would have had to be, like I said previously, saying no to things in order to get to bed on time. That would be their uncomfortable action. Their uncomfortable action would have to be having a different plan for their training that really maximized the results so that they're getting a higher wattage of output on the bike, so that they're getting faster results on their time trials for their running, so that they're getting a better technique in the pool, so that their stroke is more efficient. And all of that was taking uncomfortable action. Instead of just going through the motions, swimming and biking and running the way they had been, they had to actually train specifically to get more results that were working in the direction that they wanted to go. So take a look at this for your life. What actions are you taking right now? And ask the hard question, are those actions going to get you where you want to go? I had someone recently take a look at the actions they were taking for the results that they wanted. And it had to do with coaching. And they were doing a lot of coaching and they were looking to grow. But they didn't realize that those weren't the actions to grow their business. The actions to grow their business were actually sales. So are you taking the actions that you need to in order to get to where you want to go? And this is where action vision comes in. We've done a lot of explaining. I've really done this deep dive into vision and triple vision and really that far vision, the next vision, the now vision, so that you can understand that the action has to be uncomfortable and the next vision has to be clear in order for you to get what you really, really want. So now, instead of envisioning this beautiful dream come true as that far vision all of the time, we have to add in a new vision. And that new vision is the vision of action. It's the vision of tough action. To get really specific. It's not just a vision of the beautiful stuff down the road. It's the vision of you doing the hard stuff that feels really awful that is going to get you to your next vision. It's the vision of receiving the no's. If you're someone who's in sales, having a whole bunch of people saying no and envisioning getting through those no's to the yeses, seeing yourself being able to put yourself all out there, going for a yes, doing everything it takes for the yes in your sales, then getting the no's and moving forward through the no into another sale opportunity, into another lead, into another opportunity for yes and going through another no. That is tough action vision. That is seeing yourself doing the uncomfortable. That is for that triathlete saying no to the friends so that they can get home to bed on time because their friends are going to understand that they really want to go for their goal because this is a once in a lifetime chance. Envisioning getting that incredible sleep, saying no to the friends and getting that incredible sleep and getting up at 5am to get the swim in with the swim coach who's going to really make the difference. It's envisioning those tough things that you haven't been able to do yet. It's envisioning those things that are really going to have to start to happen now in order to get to the next vision. It's envisioning yourself tomorrow doing the whole day of what you planned that's going to make the real difference. Whether it's 10 sales calls, whether it's planning the meals, whether it's having the uncomfortable presentation to ask investors to invest in your product, whether it is doing the extra chin ups after you failed and asking someone to spot you to get that next four reps that you can't do on your own. And the spotter is better because the elastic just doesn't do it as well as the spotter. So envision the tough action. What does it look like if you envision the most beautiful relationship? If you envision this loving, passionate, incredible marriage, then the tough now action is showing affection and hugs and love notes that you might not feel like doing right now. You might not feel like doing that during the day when there's so many other distractions. You might not feel like going for the hug when you're annoyed about something that happened at work. And yet that's the uncomfortable action that's going to lead to the vision that you really, really want. So take a look at what you really want for 2022. Get clear on that far vision. And you probably already are. Most people are clear on that far vision and they think they're clear on the now vision. But the reality is, is that foggy next vision is going to be the magic clarity on that next vision is going to allow you to start taking the appropriate uncomfortable action and then visualize yourself taking the tough actions that have been challenging for you in the past that you cognitively know aren't that hard. However, you know you've had some resistance and for some reason you haven't done it. So now is the time to envision that tough action that's going to get you to the next level. See yourself doing it. See yourself making it easy. See yourself having fun with it. See yourself laughing through it. See yourself messing up and making a fool of yourself and being okay with it. See yourself through all of that that you naturally, your brain naturally wants to avoid because it's slightly uncomfortable or, or maybe even a lot uncomfortable. That is action vision. That is tough action vision. That is uncomfortable action vision. That is the kind of action vision that's going to get you through to your next level. And that next level is the prerequisite to your ultimate dreams. The prerequisite to everything you truly want in your world, in your life. Everything that's really going to make a difference for you and those that you serve, those that you reach, those that you touch. That tough action vision now is your key. So that is what action vision is. I challenge you, challenge you to start seeing it when you warm up for your workout today. See what uncomfortable action you're going to take when you are driving in your vehicle. See yourself. See the uncomfortable action that you're going to take to make the difference in your business, in your health, in your relationships, in all the things that really matter to you and those big, big goals that you've got going on. So go for it. Don't stop. And this little detail, this little detail of action vision is one of the most important things that will really make the difference to getting you to your goals. Have a beautiful, beautiful holiday season. Let's get ready for 2022 and take that uncomfortable action. Keep going everyone. If you enjoy listening to the Empowered Team Podcast, you'll love being on the Empowered Team. The Empowered Team runs year round. It is our group coaching and accountability program where we take mindset and physical performance concepts and break them down to usable action steps that optimize results. To learn more about our Empowered Leadership coaching for business, our custom online physical training plans and of course the Empowered Team Group coaching, head to www.theempowered.ca empowered learn more. That's www.theempowered.ca. empowered learn more.