Knowing where you’re headed in life is the key to success. Creating a vision is all about developing a long-term picture of your career, and also your life. When was the last time you spent time working on, or revisiting your vision for your career?

Here are some questions to consider as you start developing your professional vision:

• What do you want your future to look like? Professionally? Personally?
• What are your top five professional goals? What do you need to achieve them? What is the timeframe for completion of each one?
• What do you want to be doing professionally five years from now? Ten years down the road?
  • What goals will you have achieved?
  • Where will you be working?
  • What will your role be?
• What new skills do you want to acquire as a professional? By when?
• What professional qualifications do you hope to achieve? By when?
• What additional training or education do you wish to undertake?
• What impact do you want to have in your profession?
• What do you want to be known for?
• What two things do you need to have every day from your work in order to feel fulfilled?

A great vision will provide clarity about your goals, values, and priorities, and energize you to reach or surpass what you want to achieve. Spend 20 minutes or more thinking about these questions and either write or draw out your answers. Revisit your vision on a regular basis and notice which goals and pieces of your vision you are achieving.