Exercise at a glance
A journal exercise to uncover your vision to drive your life and work.
Guidance by me through audio, 13 questions to trigger your thoughts, and a vision canvas.
Takes about 60 minutes to complete.
Why your Why?
Whether you call it purpose, meaning or vision. It's important to get a grasp of what these are for you. The rage has been a bit much. But our lives are more fulfilling if they're filled with meaning.
Daniel Pink names Purpose one of the three motivators in Drive (besides Autonomy and Mastery). Victor E. Frankl partly ascribes surviving the holocaust to having a purpose to guide him through (in his great book: Man's Search for Meaning). And of course, there's Simon Sinek and his Golden Circle preaching us to Start with Why. The list goes on.
Knowing why you do what you do has four benefits. First, it's your personal motivation and satisfaction and being clear on it allows you to live your life according to it. Secondly, it inspires and galvanizes others to join your cause. Thirdly, it improves the world, because all authentic visions I've come across include contributing to creating a better situation for all of us. Lastly, frankly, it makes for stronger marketing messaging.
Thus! Know your why. This exercise is here to help!
Why journaling?
Everybody has things that motivate them. Through experiences, you develop things that you value. Good experiences that lead to positive outcomes → Positive value. And vice versa. The stronger the experience or the earlier in your life it took place, the stronger the relation.
The problem is, your true motivators, the things that truly give you meaning, are not wordy things. We can't simply reason ourselves to an answer to the question "What's your purpose". Purpose, meaning, and everything that drives decision-making are emotional. They reside in the older part of your brain, your limbic brain. And not in the neocortex, the conscious part that's about reason and language.
That means more thinking doesn't make it clearer. We need to give words to what is contained in our subconscious.
We've got to tease your vision out. We can't go at it too directly but got to circle and surround it. The words that match most will pop up then. Freewriting (or journaling) helps us do so.
Also, your true motivation can be somewhat suppressed by your survival mechanisms. Since it possibly requires you to make bold, risky, daring changes in your life if you'd admit to these, your internal chatter is amazingly well equipped to keep you away from it.
We've got to trick your mind to relax and give us the good stuff. The honest truth and not things you feel you're supposed to do.
About Free Writing
That's why we use a journal exercise. The idea is to listen to (or read the) question and then write freely until the time runs out. But you have to keep writing for it to work.
Freewriting is free writing. You have to freely write. The WHOLE time! Your pen shouldn't leave the page.
The rules are simple:
Rule 1: Start writing.
Rule 2: There is no rule 2. When unsure, see rule 1.
It's the opposite of a test where you get one sheet of paper and having to succinctly write down the correct answer with indelible ink. It's not school!
That will mean that you'll write down things that are partly not right, untrue, or incorrect. That's ok. The point is not the answer you write down. The point is the writing. The flow of consciousness coming out of your brain.
That also means you're not done when you think you've written down the answer. You're done when the time is up and when I give you the next question. It's deceptively simple, but trust me on this.
Like Hemingway (allegedly) said: "Write drunk, edit sober"
KEEP WRITING!!
By using a flow of questions, we warm up the brain. Question by question, we light up different and deeper-lying parts of your brain. We'll slowly go from the conscious story of your why, to the deeper elements that lie dormant in your subconscious.
Also, because you keep writing, your guardian angels (those defensive voices) quickly realize that resistance is futile. They'll get out of the way. You need to write down the junk to get to the juice.
NB: Do this with pen and paper and not on your computer. Computers are too fast and unnatural. Studies have shown that when using a digital device to write, you write less generatively and more structurally and orderly. We want generative creative energy! Your brain needs to be freed up to not have to think about an interface.
The Exercise
So how will this work? I have 13 questions to guide you on this journey. You journal your way to a vantage point where you can clearly see vision. The questions start off on the surface and you'll take a deeper and deeper dive as you go along.
I've recorded the questions for you to make this a guided journal exercise. So you listen to me reading you the questions as you go.
There are three versions: 1) with piano music, 2) with calm music, or 3) with no music at all. Use which one you prefer.
There is also a pdf with all the questions. Handy to reread the question after I read it to you. Or when you prefer to do the exercise on your own in silence (NB: then use a timer).
The pdf also includes a vision canvas. It's 4 A4, with 10 boxes on it, each with a different facet of your vision. Use this after the audio ends to capture the vision you journaled out of yourself. Do so in any order you feel like and jump back and forth if you want. If you prefer instead, feel free to simply take one big piece of paper and mindmap with the 10 aspects as starting points.
The flow
The timing of the questions is as follows:
3 minutes for Q1-9 (each),
5 minutes for Q10-12, and (each)
10 minutes for Q13 plus some percolation.
(this is when the audio stops).
15 minutes (post-audio) to, with that vision fresh in mind, fill in your canvas (the last 4 pages with the boxes on it). Take about 15 minutes for this.
NB: If you go solo (without audio guidance), it's best to set up a timer with these transitions before you start. Then you won't have to think about it while in the exercise. A Pomodoro-app like Tomato One or this one online will do the trick.
Preparation
Want to get started? This is how you get ready:
Play the mp3 through this website with the music you prefer. Or when you prefer to listen in your podcast app, the version with piano music is included in the feed of De Gebakken Peren (web, Apple Podcast, Overcast, or Spotify).
Download the pdf with questions and canvas if you want to have them with you.
Get the canvas with you to capture your vision after the journaling ends.
When you go solo, set up your timers.
Make sure you can work undisturbed. Close the door. Turn off notifications and any alerts. You’ll need that peace and quiet to get in the flow. Get your favorite pen and paper (no laptop!). Plenty of paper! Get comfortable and stretch your fingers one last time.
Hit play and enjoy.
I hope this helps you. This was a blast to make!
Email me your vision or a picture of your canvas. I really enjoy hearing from you.
Credits
Special thanks to Thijs Hoogenstrijd and the ImpactHub Amsterdam for co-creating. Years ago, I brought in this exercise in the Business Model Challenge (BMC), and this year we decided to create an audio version of it that's also included in the online version of the BMC.
And, of course as always, thanks to Ruben May and The Podcast Garden for producing.
