Vision - You control your future

The vision thing can often be tricky for student leaders or in fact for most people.
Your vision may simply be wanting to do your best. Often, students will tell me their vision is "to have the best year ever." But what does that mean?
Left on its own, it sounds more like a mission statement.
Anyone stepping into student leadership can say, "I want to have the best year ever, we want to be the best group ever." But that statement doesn't say anything unique about your situation, it's not measurable, and it will end up meaning different things to different people.
A vision is simply a picture of where you'd like to end up.
It gives people a sense of the big picture and helps others get a sense of where the group is headed.
For example, Emile was elected as a Student Representative for next year. Emile shared his vision with Talk the Talk. His vision is for his class to create a park, filled with trees, in front of the main office block for students to enjoy. He announced that this would be the matric gift to the school for 2008.
As a part of this vision, the other students on the council realized they would need to do more fund raisers, coordinate the plans with the Headmistress, and begin right away to make this project a possibility.
A vision doesn't have to give all of the details, but it needs to be specific enough that people can figure out what details need to happen.
The idea of a new park in front of the main buildings was unique for this class. It is measurable - the class will know if they accomplished the vision or not. Plus, it gives added meaning to all of the other events which precede it’s opening. Fund raisers will be more than raising money for the class, they were for getting resources to complete the park.
One of the best ways to communicate a vision is to paint a picture and put your people in it. Continue to talk about it and let people’s imagination see themselves there.
EXERCISE:* What type of project or event can you imagine accomplishing during your student leader year?* Are there projects that are on-going from past years which you need to complete in your student leader year?* How can you turn your vision into a picture people can see themselves in?
A clear vision provides people with an idea of what is possible. A vision will point toward a change in the future. Hoping that it will happen is not a strategy.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT: What kind of vision will you offer those you lead next year?
SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT: Write your vision below and see how it feels when you read it.
My Vision for 2008 is ...


Think seriously about this...
Anxiety and fear strips away courage and makes great performances impossible.
Doubt makes even the best decisions feel difficult.
Anger rips your focus away from your goals.
Frustration can only serve to make you quit.
Guilt makes it impossible to enjoy any successes you achieve.
Jealousy and envy create dishonesty, hate and corruption.
Your thoughts and emotions are the only things that can truly stop you.
Likewise, the only things that can help you to do, be and have anything you want in life are also your thoughts and emotions. Next month Talk the Talk will look at responsible partying, where’s hot and what’s not