Since 2006 I’ve had a singular vision for my work: I want to look forward to Monday mornings.

For many people, achieving a long-term goal is more important than being happy every day. That is a wonderful quality and I’m sure characteristic of many people who are tremendous leaders and who work to change the world. It’s okay if you’re not one of those people. I certainly am not. And I must tell you, my vision has worked.

We assume a vision has to mean deciding to win Olympic gold, or having a New York Times bestseller. But your true vision is probably less dramatic in scope. Great visions can be modest, and particular.

In fact, creating your vision is mostly an exercise in self-acceptance, and even a decidedly un-fancy one can make you happy and successful. That means you don’t need a shaman or a life coach to find one, but you do need to be honest with yourself. Sometimes your vision will come to you in a flash, but more often, you must create space to let it emerge.

You might want to be a billionaire or live in a castle, but that’s a fantasy, not a vision. A vision is that castle, downsized: a certain level of financial freedom; meaningful work; and room to accomplish personal goals, like having children or completing a passion project.

My Company’s Vision Story

Before I did workplace mental health advocacy full time, I ran a small business called Women Online, which I sold in 2021. But when I started my entrepreneurial journey, I was struggling.

I’d left corporate America in 2006, and had freelanced doing marketing while going to graduate school for both my Master’s in Social Work, and my Master’s in Public Administration. I graduated from the MPA at a tumultuous time (2008): a devastating depression while pregnant, the birth of my first child, the Great Recession, a new city, ad hoc consulting income, and many fruitless applications to doctoral programs. The Master of Social Work went unfinished because it was so darn expensive (I’d had the intention of pivoting from my career in political consulting to becoming a workplace therapist… more on that at another time).

Freelancing was a great fit for me. I started forward to Mondays!

Because I was an experienced blogger and expert in women’s online community thanks to years at iVillage.com and BlogHer.com, my freelance clients were particularly intrigued by my expertise; Web2.0 was exploding. I knew a lot about connecting women through online community—and identifying influential women online for my client organizations to partner with. Word started getting around that there was a good consultant who focused on helping organizations mobilize women online, creating campaigns to effect social good, change behaviors (like getting kids vaccinated), and electing candidates.

By 2010, I was making good money as a freelancer, spending a lot of time with my son, and enjoying my work. I was blogging about women, workplace flexibility, and leadership, which fulfilled my need to be engaged in civic work and discourse, and got me a tiny bit of visibility, which fulfilled both my ego and business development goals. I worked from home unless I was traveling, which meant I put on makeup and nice clothes. Otherwise, I was in yoga pants.

And one morning in 2011 I woke up and it hit me: this was going to be my business… like a real business. It was going to be called Women Online. We would be the first content marketing agency focusing on creating online campaigns that mobilized women for good causes. I registered the domain that morning and began thinking about a logo. My first logo was awful. But I was so excited about the idea, I couldn’t think of anything else.

There’s a wonderful British saying: “Start as you mean to go on.” I like to think setting a strong vision creates real strength and intention. We became an incredible small business, working for clients like President Obama, the CDC, AARP, and Malala, and helping launch movements like #GivingTuesday.

GETTING STARTED

Setting Your Vision

There are a million books on setting your vision, but before you get overwhelmed, here are some simple steps to coax your vision from its hiding place.

Put it in writing. Write down a vision statement for your next five years at work, or for your business. It’s about putting on paper (or iPad) what you want to carry through on in your life. There are no rules here. Just try to capture a vision that encompasses not only how you want to feel about your work or business, but what you want to do. Shut off your inner critic!

Ask, What motivates me? It may take you a while to arrive at the answer...or at least, to arrive at your honest answer. To get started, look at the categories below. How close are you to each category? What are the specifics of your contribution? Your control? Your salary?

• Passion maximizer: It’s very important to me to love my work and feel like I am making a valuable contribution to something I care about. I’d rather work like crazy at a job I love than earn tons of money (although money is fine too!).

• Income maximizer: I am motivated by money. I will sacrifice short-term happiness, time, or flexibility to earn the most money I can.

• Flexibility maximizer: I am motivated by control over my schedule and work flow. It’s most important to me to call my own shots and work at the place, pace, and time I want.

• Prestige maximizer: I need to feel important. I want to be in the thick of it, and feel like a crucial player.

Ask, Do my short-term and long-term goals for career and life match up? Goals are complex, and involve an integration of life, work, and leisure. It’s important to make sure your short- and long-term goals can work together.

Take a piece of paper and brainstorm answers to the following questions. Be as detailed as you can.

• In the short term, I want to work X way and accomplish X, Y, and Z

• In the next ten or fifteen years, I want to do X and I want to have done X, Y, and Z.

If your short- and long-term goals are at a disconnect, you need to rethink things. For example, if you want to take a year off and travel around the world, but also be a millionaire in five years, that might need a rethink. But working hard for five years on your income could open up that year off down the line.

What’s my vision for the everyday? It’s important to have a long-term plan, but you need to stick to those goals in order to achieve them! If you hate your work in the day-to-day, chances are you won’t. You need to be sure the actual work you do is the right fit for your temperament and wishes.

When my friend Christine Koh was preparing to write her dissertation, she saw the academic journal articles stacked around her and she felt despair. Academic journals frustrated her. Being alone in a lab wasn't a way to welcome Mondays. She still powered through and got her PhD, but it took her years to realize it was a terrible fit. Dr. Koh wanted to be with people, and to be creative—she just hadn’t paid attention to how her work made her feel at the moment. I'm honored to say Christine has been a colleague and friend since 2011.

So ask yourself some specific questions. Do you want to be at a computer, writing alone? Never in front of a computer? Running around on sales calls?

Do you like to be with people, constantly working in teams? Or do you need lots of alone time? How much flexibility do you like? Deadlines? Needing to be somewhere at a certain time? This stuff matters. How do you feel about flying? I’m serious. Do you love it? Hate it?

A fundamental misfit might necessitate a new career. But I’d wager that there are elements of your work you love (after all, you chose it) and that you might need to shift time, place, content, or pace in order to make work enjoyable again.

Then you can get to work on that realistic vision, which might be to do the same kind of work, in a very different way.

Next week: How to build flexibility in the job you already have.

Morra