Patrick Mosher walks you through the first step of building a ten-year vision: spend four minutes writing down your accomplishments from the last decade. He argues your past performance predicts your future, and that gratitude for what you've already done fuels the vision ahead.
Chapters
Do you ever think where you'll be in the next 10 years? What will your children be doing? Who will they be? Where will they be? And what about your career? What will you be doing? Who will you be working with? And where in the world will you be? You want to get a peek into your world 10 years from now? There is a way. It's simple and doesn't require a crystal ball. Are you ready? Now, be patient as I lay the foundation. In choosing someone for a new job or a new role, I often heard the phrase, "Past performance is an excellent predictor of future performance." Reviewing a person's past performance across years, roles, and supervisors is an excellent way to evaluate how a person will perform. Sure, there are anomalies. People make right or left turns in their career all the time. I, I certainly did. But for the most part, people are pretty consistent in their trajectory. And so are you. Your past performance, experiences, habits, and behaviors provide a decent view of how you will act and perform going forward. But wait, this is amazingly great news! Take out your journal and for the next 4 minutes, jot down your accomplishments over the past 10 years. Go ahead, I'll wait right here for you. Wow, you must have an amazing list of accomplishments. Did you have a baby, maybe two of them? Did you switch jobs, get a degree, get married or divorced, get certified as a coach, successfully deliver a major project or two, accept an award, launch a cool product in the marketplace, vacate on a beautiful beach, travel to an exotic location, make a lifelong friend, deliver an impactful message from stage or in a classroom, or maybe even jump from a plane. Each one of your accomplishments is a beautiful jigsaw puzzle piece that's slowly revealing the vision of your life story. Yep, that's right. You're in the middle of your vision. Your vision isn't only something in the future. You've spent the last 10 years building your vision, and even better, you are living into your vision right now. That's a radical perspective, right? By examining your accomplishments, you begin to see that beautiful vision you're in the midst of building. Are you ready to sharpen that vision a little bit? As you examine your accomplishments list again, fill your heart with gratitude. Be grateful for who you are, from where you come, and the amazing people in your life. Powerful vision begins with deep gratitude. And here's a cool thing about all those amazing stories. There's one common element in all of them. You. Here's the clincher. Your best self is very predictable. Remember, past performances is the best predictor of future performances. You may not be able to predict your accomplishments specifically over the next 10 years, but imagine what you could accomplish if you placed your bets on your best self. Just like the past 10 years, your best self will continue to show up and generate even more amazing accomplishments over the next 10 years because you are a continuous learner. You know, every great accomplishment is preceded by a couple epic failures, and You don't give up. You learn. To create a 10-year vision, begin by examining your accomplishments over the past 10 years. Identify your best self in each story. This one, yeah, this one will carry you forward. And now, with gratitude packed in your heart and confidence built in your resolve, dream forward 10 years. Do you see it taking shape? Yeah, me too. Wow.
