Why the starting point matters
People get stuck on vision statements for different reasons. Some cannot picture the future, some are not sure what they care about, and some have too many ideas. A method that helps one person can leave another staring at a blank page.
The five approaches below are starting points, not rival systems. Any of them can produce raw material that you then shape into a sentence or two. If you want the full reflect, draft, test and refine process, that is covered separately; this article focuses on how to begin.
1. Write as your future self
Imagine it is several years from now and you are describing a good week at work. Write in the present tense, as if it were already happening: where you are, what you are doing, who you are working with, how you feel at the end of the day.
Keep it concrete and sensory rather than grand. “I spend the morning working through a problem with two colleagues, then have quiet time to write” tells you more than “I am a respected leader.”
Then underline the verbs and the conditions. Those become the core of the statement. This method tends to suit people who think in scenes and stories. It can be less helpful if you find it hard to imagine the future, or if a long timeline feels unrealistic.
2. Start from a values list
Write down or find a list of common work values, such as autonomy, stability, creativity, helping others, learning, recognition, flexibility or income. Sort them into “essential,” “nice to have” and “not important to me.” Then force a choice by narrowing the essentials down to your top three to five.
The result is a ranking you can turn into a sentence: “I want work that offers [value 1] and [value 2], within an environment that respects [value 3].” This works well for people who find abstract writing hard and prefer to choose from options. Its weakness is that a values list can sound generic, so add a line about what you actually want to do. Our piece on clarifying your core work values goes deeper on this step.
3. Mine your best and worst moments
Make two lists. On one, record three to five moments from your working life when you felt proud, engaged or energized. On the other, record three to five moments when you felt drained, bored or out of place.
For each, write down what you were doing, who was involved and what the setting was like. Look for patterns across the lists. Perhaps the good moments involve teaching and the bad ones involve long stretches of solo data entry. Those patterns describe what to move toward and what to move away from.
This approach suits people with several years of experience to draw on. Early in a career you may have too few moments to see a pattern, and it can help to include school, volunteering and projects.
4. Borrow from people you admire
Think of three people, whether colleagues, public figures or acquaintances, whose working lives you find appealing. For each, write down what exactly appeals to you. Be specific: is it their independence, their expertise, the people they work with or the problems they handle?
Be careful here. Admiring someone’s status is different from wanting their daily work. Ask yourself whether you would enjoy a typical Tuesday in their job. Speaking with people through informational interviews is a good way to check, because they can describe what the role involves beyond the highlights.
This method suits people who respond to examples more than to abstract questions. It is less reliable if your admiration is mostly about prestige.
5. Complete the sentence prompts
Some people do best with a structure. Fill in a few sentence stems quickly, without overthinking:
- “I do my best work when…”
- “I want to be known for…”
- “I would like to spend more of my time on…”
- “I would like to spend less of my time on…”
- “Five years from now I hope people say I…”
Then combine the strongest answers into one or two sentences. Because the stems are short, this is the fastest of the five, which makes it a good first attempt before trying something more involved. The risk is shallow answers, so come back to it a day later and see whether you still agree.
How to choose, and how to combine
A rough guide:
- If you think in pictures and stories, try the future-self method.
- If you like clear choices, start with a values list.
- If you have plenty of experience, try best and worst moments.
- If you learn from examples, try borrowing from people you admire.
- If you are short on time or just warming up, use the sentence prompts.
You do not have to stay with one. Many people use two: a quick sentence-prompt pass to loosen up, then a values list to sharpen it. If two methods produce very different results, that is worth noticing. It may mean you are torn between options, and that is something to think through before committing to wording.
Whichever route you take, treat the first output as a draft. A statement written in an afternoon is a starting point, and it usually improves when you test it against real decisions and revise it a few weeks later.