Why have a Vision and Values?

When Lionel and I started CodePro in January, we had a shared vision. Having both been through failed relationships we wanted ours to succeed. As we discovered our shared vision for making people’s lives easier we decided that we owed it to ourselves to give it a go!

Being a leadership, management and Communications trainer, I have always worked to inspire people and help them to achieve their personal and Business goals. Unlikely as it sounds, as a software analyst/programmer, Lionel saw his vision as being solving people’s problems through creating software solutions that were simple and easy to use.

Together we felt we could make a real difference and CodePro was born. 8 months down the road, there have been many challenges and keeping the vision alive and living true to our values has not always been easy. Today I want to reflect on exactly what I need to do to stay on course. I hope my musing may also give you some ideas.

Having a clear vision and purpose enables us to focus on what is most important to us both now and in the future. Having focus enables us to plan and take action to achieve the future we want in line with our purpose in life, this boosts our self esteem and confidence, strengthens our congruence and influence, and makes it more likely that we will achieve what we want.

Living a purposeful life reduces stress, increases energy, creates optimism and happiness. Once our vision and purpose become clearer we can take stock of the current situation and begin to identify priorities and desired changes to create our amazing future.

“The best way to predict the future is to create it”

To stay focused on my Vision and Future I use self-reflection, identifying what is right for me individually and envisioning our future as a Business and as a couple. There are no right or wrong answers, it is what you think that matters and what feels right for you. Free wheel during this, dare to dream and go for more – we are all unique and different and choose to work in different ways!

Whatever I am involved in try to keep my Vision and Values in mind. Values are the things that matter most to you. Without these things, you would not be you.

Our values help us make choices about what we commit to in our lives. If you commit time and energy to something that violates or neglects one of your core values, you will most likely feel resentful and frustrated. If you do not honour your values in your activities and relationships, you will begin to get a nagging feeling that something is missing or wrong in your life.

While it is enormously helpful to know our core values, it's not always easy to identify them.

I think about what is important to me....really? What do I care about? What do I really want in my life? When do I feel happiest? It can help to elect a time from your personal history when you felt particularly fulfilled. There may have been challenges, but you were on a roll. It may have been a few minutes, or hours, or days. What was important about this experience? What values were you honouring?

What do you react negatively to? What makes you angry or frustrated? Think about one of these things. What value is being violated? What kinds of situations cause you to feel incongruent? When are you not being true to yourself? For each of us, there are usually values that are so much a part of us that we don’t even think to put them on a list. These are often our most dearly held values. A teacher might fail to include learning, an artist might forget to write down creativity, a business owner might overlook financial success.

Often these things are so much a part of who we are, that they become invisible to us.

Reflecting on my Vision and Values is helping me to stay focused on what’s important. When we are under stress it is so easy to lose perspective and forget what is most important in our lives.

CodePro and Job Prospector are my passion – I want it to work, I want Job Prospector to help make the lives of millions of people easier by helping them to organise their job search and find a job and career stability and I will focus all my energy into achieving this – however underlying it all I want to be happy and content in my life and that means remembering what is most important – loved ones, family and friends.

I wish you all the best in whatever you do today and hope I’ve got you thinking about what is really important to you!

Have a great day.