In The hero’s journey  I outlined a few beginning steps, one of which prompted you to “know your quest.”

Clearly define the vision you have for this business. Don’t start the business planning just yet, but rather get a picture of the destination. What will your life be like at the end of the journey? What is your goal? What is your business? What do you want to be doing all day?

It is important to know what future you want to create or build. It is what will…

1. guide you in your decision making of how to spend your precious resources, and
2. it will help you to recognize when you arrive – success!

Even on the one page business plan, it is important to describe your vision. the state of the world you create in the future.

A Look At Your Future

An exercise I like to use with clients includes them putting themselves in the future and having them describe to me what they see, feel, hear, smell, etc. The more detail the better.

• Some of the things to consider are:
• Where are you?
• The type of location: are you working remotely? in an office? in a shop?
• The geographic location: in the city, suburbs, ocean, mountains, what country?
• What is the style of your work space? Is it casual? formal? posh?
• How do you work?
• Are you working set hours? do you work whenever?
• Who do you interact with?
• Are you working alone, or with others?
• Are the others employees, partners, contractors, or other indie professionals?
• Are they in the same location with you or elsewhere?
• Are they the same age, sex, industry, country, etc.
• What is your actual work like? / What do you do all day?
• Are you talking face to face with people?
• Are you interacting with people all day?
• Are you writing? coding? brainstorming?
• Are you creating products?
• Are you researching?

CHALLENGE:

Think about a typical day for you in your future world. Describe this day – from the time you get up until your head hits the pillow at night. Write it out (or record yourself talking about it).

Once you have done that – explored all of the details of your future world – then you can start to identify key requirements for your vision. What you build must meet the majority of these requirements.