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You're listening to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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In today's episode, we reveal how to use the power of vision to achieve your biggest goals.
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So stay tuned.
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If you want to have real and powerful influence over the money and policy decisions that impact your organization and the people you serve, then you're in the right place.
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I'm Kath Patrick and I've helped dozens of progressive nonprofit leaders take their organizations to new and higher levels of impact and success by building powerful influence with the decision makers that matter.
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It is possible to get a critical mass of the money and policy decision makers in your world to be as invested in your success as you are.
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To have them seeking you out as an equal partner.
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And to have them Bringing opportunities and resources to you.
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This podcast will help you do just that.
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Welcome to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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Hey everybody.
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Kath Patrick here.
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Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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I'm so glad you're here for today's episode.
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One of the most underrated and underappreciated tools in the toolkits of the most effective nonprofit leaders is vision.
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The truth is whether it's in Nonprofit land or anywhere else, nothing big ever happens without a vision.
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Whether it's at the community level or worldwide, big ambitious things take vision in order to bring them about.
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And it also requires the ability to transform that vision into reality.
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Hey there folks.
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Welcome to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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I'm your host, Kath, Patrick.
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Chances are you already have a vision about how you want some things to be.
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But if you want that vision to become a reality, it's going to require some very specific things from you.
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Just having the vision isn't enough.
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You have to pursue that vision through consistent, concrete action.
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And that's no easy thing because there are a million things that get in the way.
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And so you also have to be able to train yourself in some core practices and habits that will allow you to actually bring that vision to reality.
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So the first thing is finding and identifying your vision.
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You might have more than one.
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It could be a grand long-term vision of something really big.
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Or it could be something narrower and nearer term.
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Or both.
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So a, grand vision at say the community level would be something like, everyone in the community has a medical home where they regularly receive high quality and affordable care from caring professionals.
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So, you know, that's clearly a long-term goal.
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Right.
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That's a big aspirational goal that it will take a lot to make happen.
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A really common and concrete example of a medium term and fairly specific vision is say, a new building.
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Or a piece of landmark policy or legislation..
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Those are the kinds of visions you can build a campaign around because they're near enough term, and specific enough, that lend themselves to campaigns.
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Those big grand visions might involve multiple campaigns.
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They might even involve a movement.
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But whether it's grand and long-term.
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Or kind of medium size, medium term.
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Just those broad strokes of a vision are not going to get you there.
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So once you have identified your vision, Then it's time to clarify it.
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And the more detailed and the more vivid it is, the better.
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You want to paint a picture in the greatest possible detail, of what it will look like when your vision has happened.
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Why?
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Partly because brain science.
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It's been demonstrated over and over that the more strongly you are able to visualize an outcome or an action, the greater the chances of it actually coming into being.
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And one of my favorite examples of how powerful visualization is, is work that's been done with athletes.
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As an example, Neuroscientists have worked with tennis players.
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And they've had them I visualize a particular technique or a stroke, whatever it is that they want to work on.
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And they're sitting in a chair.
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They're imagining this activity.
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They're not actually doing anything.
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They don't have a racket in their hand.
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They don't have a tennis ball anywhere near them.
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The coach talks with them initially about what it is they need to work on.
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Then they visualize that new movement, that thing that they need to execute on.
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And they have found that two things happen.
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One, there is actually measurable growth in those muscles that are being worked in the mind, but not in actuality.
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That's how powerful the connection is.
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The body just says, okay.
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We've done this.
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We need more muscle to do it.
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There you go.
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There's the more muscle.
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And when they get out on the court, they are able to execute that new technique or stroke perfectly.
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Because they have practiced it over and over again in their mind.
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Basically your brain doesn't know the difference between imagination and reality.
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If you can visualize something strongly and powerfully enough your subconscious will decide that it is real.
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And it will begin filtering to you, all the things that will help you make it be real.
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So that's part of why it's so important to visualize this strongly.
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And the other part which we'll get to in a minute, is that if you're not clear on it, nobody else will be either.
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And you're going to need to be able to communicate this eventually.
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So there's a lot of ways you can do this, whatever works for you.
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And I'm a fan of doing more than one.
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So definitely write it down.
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But also you might want to draw it.
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You might want to literally paint it.
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You might want to build a 3d model of it.
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A diorama.
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Whatever modalities work for you.
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Don't limit yourself to words on a page.
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You're going to need those words on a page because it's one of the primary ways we communicate.
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But we're not there.
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We're not to the communicating part.
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We're just talking about getting this vision clear in your own mind.
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And whatever helps you do that.
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Dioramas, Lego's.
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Paintings, drawings.
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Whatever works to help you visualize in extreme detail, in vivid detail is what you want.
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And when you think you have enough detail, add even more.
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This shouldn't just be a physical description of the thing.
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Although that's important.
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You start there.
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But also you want to bring to life what it means.
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How it feels when it's been created.
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Very few visions are hatched without there being some passion behind it.
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So include your passion in that vision.
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How does it feel to you when that vision is brought to life?
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How does it feel to the people that are a part of that, who benefit from that vision?
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How do they feel?
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What is changing for them?
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How it's creating ripple effects throughout the community or whatever scale you're operating on.
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So get all of that captured definitely in writing, but then ideally in at least one other modality that helps you literally have a picture in your head that is bright and clear and vivid.
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That you can almost see and touch and walk around in.
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And feel into.
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You need all of it.
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So once you've done that, then you're ready to share that vision.
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And that's a crucial next step.
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Nothing visionary gets done by one person alone.
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Right.
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It's going to take more people.
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And ideally more people who are as invested in this vision as you are.
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So you'll need to share your vision.
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And your ability to communicate your vision is absolutely critical to bringing it into reality.
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So you're going to do all the things that you just did for yourself.
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You're going to do when you communicate.
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You're going to be painting the verbal picture for sure.
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And words are a primary tool for communication, of course.
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So you want to be able to paint a robust picture with your words.
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And don't just paint the two dimensional, fact based vision.
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Communicate all of it.
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Communicate the feeling, communicate the emotions that go with it.
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Communicate the ripple effect.
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Communicate who's being impacted, and how, and how does that change things and how does it feel?
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And as you do this.
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As you begin to craft your verbal painting.
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Try it out on a few people.
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And see if they can see what you see, in the same vivid detail.
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See if they feel into it the same way you feel into it.
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And notice their reactions.
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Notice where they are with that.
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Notice how much they're getting into it, or how they're not.
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And keep refining.
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Keep refining your picture in quotes until everyone you share it with can see it as clearly as you can.
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Now, it might not be the case that everyone's going to be as excited as you are.
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It's your vision after all.
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No matter what, even somebody who's not particularly like-minded should be able to see the picture that you have in your head, in all its 3d glory.
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And then folks who are reasonably like minded should not only see that 3d in all its beautiful color and gloriousness, but they should be feeling into it with you as well.
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And you'll be able to tell when that's happening.
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But that's where you want to get with your ability to talk about this.
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Because that's how you're going to bring people along.
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That's how you're going to get others invested in helping you bring this vision to reality.
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So that's awesome.
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And then here comes reality.
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Right.
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Staying grounded in your vision is not easy.
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There are a thousand distractions every day.
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There's all kinds of rude realities, jumping in from every corner.
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Trying to pull you away from focusing on your vision.
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And to stay grounded in your vision, you're going to need some practices that work for you.
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Practices to help you stay grounded, centered, focused on your vision.
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This is somewhat individual.
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But I have found,and have spoken with many other leaders who use a lot of these.
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So these are some common ones that tend to work for lots of people.
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One very, important practice.
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And if you don't do anything else, be sure that you do this.
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Begin each day with some kind of a practice to ground you in your vision.
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It could be taking five minutes to journal on your vision.
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Keep a vision journal that is just for that.
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And spend five minutes just getting present to your vision.
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Journaling about it.
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How you're feeling about it that day.
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What you're excited about to try to move forward that day.
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Whatever is present for you.
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But begin your day with a focus on that vision.
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And remember that that is ultimately what you're focused on getting done.
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Some other things that work very well are visualization.
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Spend five minutes just bringing that beautiful 3d, rich tapestry painting to life in your mind.
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And just live in that for a few minutes at the beginning of each day.
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Another thing that can work if you're more auditory.
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You can create a simple recording for yourself on your phone or wherever.
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And play that back to yourself.
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You can record not only the description of the vision, but all of it.
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What it looks like when it's done, how it feels when it's done.
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And play that for yourself at the beginning of each day.
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Those are a few techniques that have worked well for lots of leaders, so give one or more of those, a try.
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And then that's just how you begin your day.
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Now it should go without saying that vision without action doesn't get you very far either.
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So we also have to be conscious about how we're building in 3-d action to bring about the vision.
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And consistency is super important.
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But so is consistently focusing on the right things.
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And so a very helpful practice that you can add as you're doing your morning focus, whether you're doing a journal or whatever you're doing.
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The other thing you want to do every morning before you start your workday, is after you've grounded yourself in your vision, using whatever techniques work for you.
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The next thing you do is you ask yourself, what is the one most important thing that I can do today that will move me closer to that vision?
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And whatever that one thing is, you have one every single day.
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And you block time on your calendar every day to work on that one thing.
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Now this works best if once you begin to create this practice of.
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Vision focused work, part of how you create your calendar for the day, the week, the month, the quarter.
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Is that every day has a piece of time.
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You decide how much.
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Blocked out to focus on whatever your most important thing for the vision is that day.
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And what will be helpful is if you pick a time of day when you are at your best.
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Don't have this be the thing you do at the end of a long day full of pesky little tasks.
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Pick the time of day when you are at your most creative, your most energized, your most powerful, your most visionary.
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And schedule that block of time in that spot.
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And then actually do it.
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Another critical piece is to cultivate the ability to notice when you get pulled away from the vision.
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What tends to cause that.
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And it's different for everybody.
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We all have our things that can yank us out of vision mode pretty reliably.
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Whether it's stress about finances, or 15 brush fires happening in the office or in the field, or, a, upset board member calling or an upset funder.
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Whatever it is that tends to really kind of derail you.
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Or maybe it's more the mundane stuff that gets you.
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That you get so caught up in the endless to-do lists, all the little things, the tasks that have to happen in order to make the place run.
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And get the work done and keep the money coming in and all of that.
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So it's going to be different for everybody.
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The question is what are the things that tend to A) pull you away from your vision.
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And B kind of demoralize you and take you out of visionary mode.
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So the first part of the practice is simply to notice.
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What are those things?
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What tends to cause that for you?
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And then to develop a practice to bring you back to your vision when those things happen.
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Something to allow you to step away mentally or physically from the trigger.
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And to reground, recenter on vision.
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Now it's important to note of course, that doing this will not make the thing go away that was distracting you.
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It'll still be there.
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And a lot of this is about creating habits, about creating practice.
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So the thing will still be there.
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But recentering, regrounding in vision will allow you to address that thing from the perspective of, what will move you closer to the vision?
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And that is really at the heart of what successful visionary leaders are able to do.
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There are very few, if any, leaders out there in the world who have the luxury of doing nothing but just focusing on their vision.
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And talking about their vision and bringing other people along on their vision.
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And that's what they do 24/7.
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You know, if you've got that gig, yay for you.
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That is awesome.
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But it's not the reality for most nonprofit leaders.
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Most of us are trying to stay focused on the vision while everything in our environment is trying to pull us away from it.
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Trying to get us to focus on the small stuff.
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And so what separates the successful visionary leaders from the ones who struggle, are that the successful ones operate from their vision consistently.
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So your goal is to act and operate from your vision.
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Let your vision guide your actions and your decision-making.
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Every day.
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Not just when there aren't distractions.
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Cause that will be about the 12th of never.
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But to cultivate practices that will let you do that.
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And with time and practice, you will get better at it.
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And it will take less effort.
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So one key practice that you can begin right away is to ask the question at every opportunity: will this thing, whatever it is, move us closer to the vision?
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Or further away?
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Make that be one of the screening questions you ask about absolutely everything that jumps in your path.
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Especially ask this when problems or challenges come up.
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Because I think that's when vision tends to get shoved to the back seat more often than any other time is when there's a crisis.
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And like, oh my God, we got to deal with this thing.
00:19:02.055 --> 00:19:05.897
Aah! You know, Vision is for when things are going great.
00:19:05.897 --> 00:19:08.057
But right now I just got to focus on the problem.
00:19:08.714 --> 00:19:10.904
And actually that's not really quite right.
00:19:11.417 --> 00:19:14.835
Because presumably that vision has value.
00:19:15.392 --> 00:19:20.798
It's not just oh, gosh, wouldn't it be nice if this thing were so.
00:19:21.458 --> 00:19:25.208
This is your vision as a nonprofit leader because it matters.
00:19:25.208 --> 00:19:27.307
Because it matters to the people you serve.
00:19:27.307 --> 00:19:28.807
It matters to the community.
00:19:29.018 --> 00:19:33.008
It would make a huge difference if this thing happened.
00:19:33.731 --> 00:19:35.444
So it's not optional.
00:19:36.248 --> 00:19:40.298
It's not, oh, you know, if everything's going great, we'll worry about that.
00:19:40.298 --> 00:19:42.938
But otherwise, ah, you know, whatever, not such a big deal.
00:19:43.208 --> 00:19:44.498
It's a very big deal.
00:19:45.561 --> 00:19:52.842
So when challenges and problems come up, those are the things that tend to make us focus on the small stuff.
00:19:53.951 --> 00:19:55.061
And make no mistake.
00:19:55.061 --> 00:19:56.951
You've got to deal with the problems and challenges.
00:19:56.951 --> 00:19:57.635
Of course.
00:19:58.228 --> 00:20:11.478
But begin to practice dealing with them by having at least one of your decision-making questions be, how will one course of action or another, in response to this challenge or problem.
00:20:12.278 --> 00:20:15.968
Which of these possible courses of action will move us closer to the vision.
00:20:16.644 --> 00:20:18.714
And which will move us further away.
00:20:19.298 --> 00:20:22.057
And then pick the one that moves your closest to the vision.
00:20:23.188 --> 00:20:26.488
This also comes up when opportunities jump in your path.
00:20:26.988 --> 00:20:32.087
And this can get a little tricky, because it's hard to say no to an opportunity.
00:20:32.458 --> 00:20:32.817
Oof.
00:20:32.958 --> 00:20:35.117
Really hard, especially if it's a really good one.
00:20:35.855 --> 00:20:42.458
And I'm not suggesting that the question about vision is the only one, the only determining factor.
00:20:43.055 --> 00:20:53.998
But absolutely, when opportunities jump in your path, it's equally important to ask the question: will pursuing this opportunity move us closer to that vision?
00:20:54.298 --> 00:20:55.557
Or further away?
00:20:56.647 --> 00:21:08.134
Some opportunities, as awesome as they are, might represent enough of a change in direction or focus that they could have a really detrimental effect on the pursuit of your vision.
00:21:08.964 --> 00:21:11.811
So it's important to pay attention to that.
00:21:12.471 --> 00:21:21.464
Again, There may be a preponderance of things that cause you to decide to pursue it, even if it will move you further from your vision.
00:21:22.015 --> 00:21:23.694
Although boy, that better be good.
00:21:24.565 --> 00:21:27.444
But at least you will be making a conscious decision.
00:21:27.444 --> 00:21:31.105
You will not be saying, yes, let's go after this opportunity.
00:21:31.105 --> 00:21:33.055
And then six months later going, oh, dang.
00:21:33.055 --> 00:21:34.974
That really took us away from the vision, didn't it.
00:21:35.214 --> 00:21:35.454
Hmm.
00:21:35.904 --> 00:21:36.474
Now what?
00:21:37.377 --> 00:21:39.521
So always be asking that question.
00:21:40.134 --> 00:21:42.954
And factor it in to your decision making process.
00:21:44.172 --> 00:21:53.382
Also be aware that it might be a series of actions or a series of decisions that are going to get made in the face of this opportunity or challenge.
00:21:53.971 --> 00:21:55.801
So don't just ask the question once.
00:21:56.375 --> 00:21:57.835
Each time there's a new action.
00:21:58.095 --> 00:21:59.684
Each time there's a new decision.
00:21:59.894 --> 00:22:01.902
It's worth asking that question again.
00:22:02.948 --> 00:22:09.097
One of the things this will do is develop the habit of staying centered and focused on your vision.
00:22:09.798 --> 00:22:16.194
It doesn't mean that you will always make the decision to do the thing that will take you closer to the vision.
00:22:16.224 --> 00:22:20.424
There will be times when you may consciously choose to move away from it.
00:22:21.045 --> 00:22:23.857
But the goal here is to be conscious about it.
00:22:24.974 --> 00:22:37.208
And the other thing that's going to happen, is that if you are regrounding in your vision every day, if you are getting serious about a practice of beginning your day with a centering and grounding in your vision.
00:22:37.998 --> 00:22:43.758
It will become the case that there is hardly a moment when that vision is not present in your mind.
00:22:44.147 --> 00:22:44.867
Vividly.
00:22:45.474 --> 00:22:49.285
And when that's there all the time it becomes your guide.
00:22:50.251 --> 00:22:55.682
And with your vision guiding you, that's when you start making real progress toward that vision.
00:22:57.028 --> 00:23:08.592
So as with most things, this is a combination of developing awareness, creating some consistent practices and then actually following them on a daily basis.
00:23:09.285 --> 00:23:15.174
And within a couple of months, you're going to find that this becomes routine.
00:23:15.832 --> 00:23:19.714
And once it becomes routine, then it starts to shift how you operate.
00:23:20.458 --> 00:23:24.535
And eventually it becomes a subconscious driver of how you operate.
00:23:25.285 --> 00:23:29.001
And that's when you start becoming a vision centered leader.
00:23:29.682 --> 00:23:30.761
A visionary leader.
00:23:31.444 --> 00:23:35.434
Cause you can't be visionary if you only think about the vision once in a while.
00:23:36.535 --> 00:23:36.924
So.
00:23:37.117 --> 00:23:38.137
Stuff to think about.
00:23:39.092 --> 00:23:45.362
Operating from a clear vision is absolutely the most reliable way to make big things happen.
00:23:46.112 --> 00:23:56.021
And when you don't have a vision, it's almost inevitable that you'll get sidetracked and wind up focused on all the little immediate things that jump in front of you every day.
00:23:56.988 --> 00:24:01.877
Training yourself to develop the vision and then to stay grounded in it, no matter what.
00:24:02.357 --> 00:24:04.038
No matter what's happening around you.
00:24:04.488 --> 00:24:06.887
Will allow you to get to your big vision.
00:24:07.248 --> 00:24:10.907
And to get there much faster than you would have otherwise.
00:24:11.644 --> 00:24:12.575
Thanks for listening.
00:24:12.958 --> 00:24:16.827
And I'll see you in the next episode right here on the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
