In Carve Your Own Road, one of the things we mention is the importance of writing out a vision statement for your life and your career.  I started doing this two years ago and here’s an excerpt of mine from the book about something that has been very important to me:

I see myself taking time off between December 15 and February 1, and again from July 1 to August 15 to regenerate, relax, and have fun with family and friends in exotic locations. 

This was always something we wished we could do, but never thought it was possible.  After writing it down and looking at it regularly I recently realized we could already do this, it was just a matter of deciding to do it.  So, this year we’re going away from December 25 to January 6 to Thailand and then next summer we’re renting a place on Lake Como in Italy for a month and inviting family and friends to join us. We’re planning now and setting expectations that we will be gone next summer for a month and I’m so excited about it!

It’s wonderful to see some of the vision statement coming true even if it isn’t exactly what I wrote down.  The key is beginning to move in that direction and setting a clear picture for what you want to do.  A lot of people right now are talking about the reality of the tough circumstances of our economy and they believe they have to just endure and put their nose to the grindstone.   I agree that you have to focus on what’s in front of you, but it’s so important to create a vision for the your future so that you can have something that you’re working towards that gives you energy.

When I first started my company, I wasn’t doing exactly what I wanted to do but I knew that I was working towards what I wanted so it helped by reframing my current circumstances and gave me the energy and motivation to get up every day and build momentum towards my goals.  I’m hearing from a lot of people about how tough it is right now and I’ve been there before as well. If you can take the time to put a plan in place and being working towards it you will feel much better about your current circumstances because you can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.