Life
Your Life in One Sentence: The Power of Vision

Many people think they know the vision for their life, but they confuse it with objectives like wanting to make a certain amount of money or achieve a certain job title. Other people only have a general idea that is not well defined—like “I want to help people.” A life of freedom and fulfilment requires a clearly defined vision that encompasses your entire life, not just your work. Your vision is the glue that holds together all of your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly objectives for your life.
Not being able to state your vision in a single sentence is like trying to navigate without a compass. Your vision is your guide. Without it, you cannot expect to achieve your desired outcomes in a timely or efficient manner. So let’s take a deeper look at what vision is and how to craft a vision statement.
Your Life Sentence
Former Congresswoman Clare Boothe Luce, who later became an ambassador and author, was concerned that President John F. Kennedy was stretching himself too thin and setting himself up for disappointment and defeat. She reportedly told him that the lives of all great men could be summed up in one sentence. She called that their “life sentence.”
For example, can you tell me who she was talking about when she said the following: He preserved the Union and freed the slaves.
Or how about this: He lifted us out of the great depression and helped us win a world war.
Now, whether you agree with those statements or are a political fan of those people, you probably know who those sentences describe: Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, respectively. That one sentence defines that person’s life and legacy. That brings us to vision.
It is absolutely vital in living a life of freedom and fulfilment that you have a clear, compelling, and defined vision statement for your life. Whether you’re going to die twenty minutes from right now or twenty years from now, if the person delivering your eulogy is only allotted one sentence, what is the one sentence you would want them to say that sums up your life or legacy? What is your life sentence? That’s what a vision statement is.
When I do workshops, invariably there is one person (usually a man) who shouts out that he would want to be said of him at his funeral that “He worked his ass off.” Really? That’s what you want the members of your surviving family, your wife, your kids, your grandkids to know about you?
My father had an incredible career saving the world and working on a space program, but at his wake, nobody really talked about his career. Instead, he was defined by his role as a husband, a father, a volunteer in the community.
That’s what freedom and fulfilment are all about. It’s about a vision statement that doesn’t just define you by your work, job title, or paycheck, but defines you by your role as a family member, your relationships, and, yes, your work. That’s why it’s so important to have that clearly defined vision statement.
“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.” – Henry David Thoreau
Purpose + Impact = Vision
Your vision statement is the desired outcome you want for your life. A lot of people ask me if a vision statement is the same as purpose. I used to think it was the same, but after working with hundreds of people around the world and from my own experience, I have come to believe that vision is bigger than purpose. In fact, a compelling vision statement combines your purpose for living with the impact you want to make on the world.
As an example, here’s my vision statement: To save the world by helping individuals fight for lives of freedom and fulfilment.
This vision statement combines my purpose for living—helping individuals fight for lives of freedom and fulfilment—with the impact I want to make on the world—saving it (yes, I have big goals).
My vision statement doesn’t just apply to my work; it applies to my relationships and myself. Whether it’s how I live my life, how we raise our kids, how I build my business, or how I coach my clients, my vision statement provides a guiding star—that destination on a map where I want to end up.
Some people are convinced that you should have multiple vision statements in your life. But they’re confusing vision with objectives. Having yearly objectives, and maybe five and ten year objectives, is important. For example, when you’re in your twenties, perhaps you think your vision is to make partner and earn $100,000 a year. Then when you get in your thirties, you think your vision is to find your mate, get married, and have kids. Those aren’t visions; they’re actually not even purposes. Those are objectives.
It’s critical to have those objectives, but if you go through life from objective to objective without a clear and compelling vision that serves as the glue to hold them together, you are going to find yourself lost. You are going to hit the wall—whether it’s in your thirties, forties, fifties, or beyond—and have that feeling that you don’t know what you were put on this earth to do.
“Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
Questions to Help You Craft Your Vision Statement
So you may be thinking, “Well, coming up with my purpose and impact and a compelling vision is easier said than done.” And you’re absolutely right. It takes time and deep reflection to craft your vision statement.
To help you get started, here are some questions to think about:
- What are your strengths? How are you leveraging them? How do you wish you could leverage them?
- What are those one or two things you would want to be said about you at your funeral that would make you feel that you passed on a lasting, fulfilling legacy?
- What things, people, and activities make you feel the most passionate?
- Where would you like to be in five years? Ten years? Twenty-five years?
- If you found out you only had one week left to live, what are the one or two things you wish you would have done by now, but haven’t?
- How does your vision align with your strengths? And on that last note, when you look at your strengths, how can you use them to help achieve your vision?
- When you come up with your vision, is it one that is going to allow you to use those strengths every day to achieve it?
Chart Your Course
Whenever you take a trip, you usually know the destination you want to go to, while also having milestones and landmarks in between. Whenever my family and I drive back to Chicago, I plot out our rest stops, perhaps where we’re going to stay overnight. Those rest stops and temporary stays are objectives, but I also have a clear idea of where I want to go. That’s what it means to live an outcomes-focused life.
Your vision statement is your destination. It is the thing that defines your path and all your objectives leading you from where you are today to where you want to be in the future.
Without a vision statement, you will wander aimlessly, perhaps ending up far from where you want to be. With a vision statement, you can instead move toward a life of freedom and fulfilment.
We’d love to hear what your vision is for your life. If you’d like, please share it with us below!
Life
The Imbalanced Problem with Work/Life Balance
Balancing is for your checkbook, gymnastics, and nutrition; not for your people’s work/life ratio.

Balance…it requires an equal distribution of value between two or more subjects to maintain steady composure and equitable proportionality. (more…)

It’s 2023, a new year, new you, right? But how do we start over? How do we make the changes in our lives that we crave so much to see? (more…)
Life
Failing is More Important Than Succeeding
Failure is an integral part of life as life is incomplete without failures.

People often consider failure a stigma. Society often doesn’t respect the people who failed and avoids and criticizes their actions. Failure is an integral part of life as life is incomplete without failures. Not to have endeavored is worse than failing in life as at some stage of your life you regret not having tried in your life. (more…)
Life
5 Indicators of Unresolved Attachment Trauma

Trauma caused during specific stages of a child’s development, known as attachment trauma, can have lasting effects on a person’s sense of safety, security, predictability, and trust. This type of trauma is often the result of abuse, neglect, or inconsistent care from a primary caregiver.
Individuals who have not fully processed attachment trauma may display similar patterns of behavior and physical or psychological symptoms that negatively impact their adult lives, including the choices they make in relationships and business.
Unfortunately, many people may not even be aware that they are struggling with trauma. Research estimates that 6% of the population will experience PTSD in their lifetime, with a majority of males and females having experienced significant trauma.
Unresolved attachment trauma can significantly impair the overall quality of a person’s life, including their ability to form healthy relationships and make positive choices for themselves. One well-known effect of unhealed attachment trauma is the compulsion to repeat past wounds by unconsciously selecting romantic partners who trigger their developmental trauma.
However, there are other less recognized but equally detrimental signs of unprocessed developmental trauma.
Five possible indications of unresolved attachment trauma are:
1. Unconscious Sabotage
Self-sabotage is a common pattern among individuals with unprocessed attachment trauma. This cycle often begins with hurting others, which is then followed by hurting oneself. It is also common for those with attachment trauma to have heightened emotional sensitivity, which can trigger this cycle.
This pattern can manifest in lashing out, shutting down, or impulsive behavior that leads to feelings of guilt, shame, and self-loathing.
Many people with attachment trauma are not aware of their wounds and operate on survival mode, unconsciously testing or challenging the emotional investment of those around them, and pushing them away out of self-preservation and fear of abandonment.
This can lead to a pattern of making poor choices for themselves based on impulsivity.
3. Behaviors That Block Out Trauma
4. A strong need for control
5. Psychological Symptoms That Are Not Explained
What to do next if you’re suffering from emotional attachment trauma?
There are several ways that people can work to overcome emotional attachment trauma:
- Therapy: One of the most effective ways to overcome emotional attachment trauma is through therapy. A therapist can help you process your experiences, understand the impact of your trauma on your life, and develop coping strategies to manage symptoms.
- Support groups: Joining a support group of people who have had similar experiences can be a great way to find validation, empathy, and a sense of community.
- Mindfulness practices: Mindfulness practices such as meditation, pilates, prayer time with God or journaling can help you become more aware of your thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations, and develop a sense of spiritual connection and self-regulation.
- Trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (TF-CBT): This is a type of therapy that is specifically designed to help individuals process and recover from traumatic events.
- Building a safety net: Building a support system of people you trust, who are there for you when you need them, can help you feel more secure and safe in your life.
It’s important to remember that healing from emotional attachment trauma is a process and it may take time. It’s also important to find a therapist who is experienced in treating trauma, who you feel comfortable talking with, and who can help you develop a personalized treatment plan.
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