How to create a proactive development plan for personal & professional growth

I'll start with the story of a guy named Bill.

- So, Bill, what’s your vision of your future?
- Vision? The only vision I have is a television.

When asked this question point blank, many of us, like Bill, come up with… not much. Some of us may have a sense of guilt about it: “I should know where I’m going, shouldn’t I? I actually thought I knew, but, suddenly, it seems to elude me.”

Should we, actually, have such a vision?
Well, much of what happens in our future doesn’t depend on us. And there is a lot to be said for not trying to control what is beyond our control, for going with the flow. There’s a lot to be said for spontaneity, for responding to what happens around us, instead of grimly trying to impose our will onto the world. So there is some wisdom in not having a rigid picture of what our future should be.

But there’s something to be gained from asking ourselves this question, as we can see from what happened to Bill.

When asked for a “vision”, Bill could not come up with one. What finally got him thinking was another question: “What would you do with your life if you knew you only had one year to live?”

This question was the beginning of a process. At first, Bill was angry. “What a stupid question that is!” For several days, Bill could not think about the question without feeling irritated. But, after a few days, Bill got past his anger. A few images started coming up for him. Since then, more and more details have been coming into focus. Quite specifically, for Bill, this vision involves moving out of New York, getting married, having a family, a dog… In this context, growing his business acquires a new meaning.

Even more remarkable: Bill likes to tell others about this “vision” of his. It feels good to him: this is visible in the way he smiles when he speaks about it, in the way his voice is vibrant with enthusiasm. Bill now sees himself as pulled forward by his vision of the future. This is in sharp contrast to “before”:  it now feels like he was pushing and pushing, without much of a sense of what he was pushing towards or why, other than just running away from his past.

Something changes when you get in touch with this. “Vision” is no longer about something that has to be done, yet another task, another project list… It is a sense of what you want out of life. You may not get it, but you know you want it. You don’t have to be sure to get it in order to want it.

Having such a vision is just a first step. It can take a lot of work to make it happen. And, even with a lot of effort, there’s no guarantee it will happen. You can feel overwhelmed by the difficulty. As a result, you don’t let yourself feel what you want, and you experience yourself as confused.

What does it take to go beyond this confusion? It helps to observe where you get stuck, and to try finding the right question. For Bill, facing mortality may well have been the turning point. Mortality means there is not all the time in the world for you to figure out what you want to do. So stop being coy: let yourself hear what you want from life.

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