Why having a Personal Vision Statement will help you face 2023 with confidence.

By: Mary Ana Seline Angoluan

As I close my chapter in Medical School I knew that a lot of people will be asking questions why I'd let go of an opportunity that will give me prestige, high salary, and respect in the society. Well, I think you will agree to me when I said that no one in this world wouldn't want that. Unless you are leaning toward the life of Buddha (which he himself also has prestige, respect but not so much of a salary of course). My simple answer to them was this "It no longer aligns my Personal Vision Statement". To be exact my words are like these "I wanted Medicine first because of the capability to give medications however I realized that it is no longer in line with my Personal Vision Statement".

My friends who heard of this will be scratching there heads and look confused. Probably they would be asking themselves "what is the Personal Vision Statement is she talking about?".

Well, honestly I have not written my Personal Vision Statement in any whiteboard, or hang it on my desk. I just knew what I wanted in my future and how I wanted to feel and look like. I know that it sounds being idealistic. But as my friend said "It's better to have at least an idea of the future than none".

Personal Vision Statement according to Highlands Company is the way how you wanted to live your life. It tells you how you wanted to live your daily life, how your daily actions are align to the kind of life that you wanted in the future. Further, having a Personal Vision Statement will give you a direction in life, a sense of meaning, a purpose, and help maintain the balance in your life. Another great thing about Personal Vision Statement it will cover all the areas of your life from Physical, Social, Emotional, Spiritual, and many more. It is not limited to career as most people sees it.

So how to make a Personal Vision Statement? According to Indeed.com there are 5 simple steps that you do to make your own Personal Vision Statement. I have modified it to make it more personal:

1. Identify your strengths and weaknesses

As James Clear said in his book Atomic Habits choose what suits you and things will be easy while remove those that are not to lessen further struggle. A lot of people wants to be good at everything. People would be rather called "Master of all trades" however, the truth is everyone of us are genetically designed to be unique having different sets of strengths and weaknesses.

Identifying your strengths and mastering it will help you be successful at it. In this first tip jot down your strengths and weaknesses. And focus on what matters, is that your strengths? What will you do or what are your goals when you mastered it? If you wish to focus on your weaknesses, what are the steps you are willing to take to master it? What are the sacrifices you are willing to endure just to be good at it?

A good example of Personal Vision Statement focusing on your strength would be:

"I will live each day as if I have all the power and knowledge in Psychology to teach new concepts in all my social media platforms to help others be aware of the importance of Mental Health in the Philippines."

A good example of Personal Vision Statement focusing on your weakness would be:

"I will commit myself to learn Japanese Language every single day to be more pleasing and engaging with my Japanese students in class."

In making this part you just have to make sure that you really wanted to focus either your strength, weakness, or both.

2. Know your values

Personal Vision statements needs to be aligned with your values in life to make it more personal. There are ways for you to know your Values. You can take this Personal Values Assessment by clicking the link below to further help you identify your Values.

Personal Values Assessment

Some of the examples of Values that you can use in your Personal Vision Statements are the following:

A good example of adding your values in your Personal Vision Statement would be:

"This 2023, I will be more responsible in my actions toward other people and not putting the blame on them if things go wrong." In here, as you can see this statement focused on the weakness and adding the value of being responsible next time. In here Personal Vision Statement will help you strengthen your values and your relationship with others. This will also serve as a guide to a newer and better you.

3. Look unto the people you admire

I've added this one since I believe having a good role model or a mentor would guide you on making good Personal Vision Statement. I personally admire the perseverance, dedication and knowledge of Emma Watson. She created a book club and have read a lot of books ever since she graduated from College. She made a commitment to continue reading after college. So I will be putting this portion of her commitment in my Personal Vision Statement. It would look like this: "I will continue on learning by reading one book per quarter this year and join book clubs to share my thoughts about the book".

4. Use SMART Method

Utilizing the SMART Method I have mentioned this a lot in my previous youtube videos. To make this simple SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time Bound. This is actually my favorite method to make sure that the things I really want to do is possible.

So to make sure that your Personal Vision Statement is something that you can actually do you have to be Specific to it by including the Time and Day, and the rate if there is any. For example "I will commit myself to read one book every four months next year 2023 every morning for 15minutes." It has to be measurable, like one book per quarter. Attainable, check yourself if you can really commit 15 minutes of your morning of reading, if not, put afternoon, or night, or once a week. Just to make sure that you can really finish a book in four months. Modify it in your capabilities and depending on your environment. Next is Realistic, you have to make sure that you can actually do it and something that is realistic to be done. Lastly Time Bound, you have to make sure to write the specific dates and time like everyday at 8:00am in the morning.

5. Write it down and modify whenever needed

Lastly, write it all down and modify whenever you need to modify it. So my Personal Vision Statement would look like this: "Next year 2023, I will commit myself in learning Psychology concepts and share it to others by teaching it or sharing it to my social media platforms. I will read a book every morning at 6:00am for 15 minutes everyday. In a year I have read at least a book every four months giving me three books to finish next year. I will join book clubs to share my thoughts and attend there meetings. I will practice the habit of gratefulness by putting a grateful portion in my journal to write down the things that I'm grateful everyday."

A shorter Personal Vision Statement for those who are planning to take the BLEPP 2023 Board Exam for Psychometrician and Psychologist on 2023 would look like this. "I like to help people understand themselves by using Psychological Tests so I will get my license to be a Psychometrician on June 2023".You can modify your Personal Vision Statement per field for example for Spiritual one Personal Vision Statement can be separated. In Physical, Emotional and Social as well they can go individually.

Your Personal Vision Statement may be shorter or longer, no matter the length of it as long as you know that it is possible and can help you achieve your dreams, desires and give meaning to your life in the new year it's good. Your Personal Vision Statement is modifiable if you know that you cannot do certain things in your statement do it as long as it works for you. If you skip doing one of the things that you've wrote down it's ok just don't make it a habit skipping it.

My Personal Vision Statement helped me deciding my life and having the next step of leaving medical school. And it is now helping me decide and guide me what I want in my life would look like next year. It helped me in my milestones in life and I will continue leaning to it. It may not be perfect but at least I have something to look forward doing everyday and hopefully I will achieve it in the future.