Visioning on a walk
May 2024
Visioning is such a powerful tool. It helps to be able to see what you want and where you’re going.
I do visioning for individuals, teams and organisations. This is a story of how my husband Rowan and I used a visioning walk to get clear on our hopes and dreams for our family over the next 10 years. It is so helpful to have a shared sense of what we’re building together and aiming for that brings focus and energy to our decision making.
This is the story:
Over the May bank holiday, we did a 13 mile walk across the South Downs from Lewes to Seaford. We did it as a way of having some space without the kids to think about what we want the next 10 years of our lives to look and feel like. We've both been quite focused on our work recently and felt we needed to reconnect to and update our vision for life and family stuff now our girls are 5 and 7 and we're fully in the school chapter, for the next 10 years at least!
One of the best ways to keep moving forward is to physically move our bodies. So we walked and talked, asking each other questions, loosely following some themes (see tips below) and it all just flowed out of us in a pretty coherent and aligned way. We do talk about this stuff fairly regularly but never seem to have the space in the day-to-day to discuss the full picture. So 5 hours of dedicated talking time in nature was what we needed!
Tips from how we did it:
We downloaded a route that was easy to follow on a phone. Because walking A to B felt important to represent a journey we found a route where we could take the train back
We thought about the next 10 years referencing upcoming milestones in our lives (significant birthdays, the age of our kids and their transitions, the number of summer holidays/ opportunities for adventures, where we hope our businesses/ careers will be etc to make it tangible and to support our thinking)
We referenced ‘The Wheel of Life’ for themes to check we'd covered the bases
We held the conversation lightly, asking each other questions and being open and curious in response
We took photos but didn't take notes while we were walking, and then wrote it up that evening. Between us were able to remember the relevant bits
We brought snacks and lunch with us
And we carried swimmers to go for a dip in the sea at the end!
Setting intentions, creating vision boards and having a few headline statements of a vision as memorable shortcuts seem to really work for me - and my clients. This experience has left me feeling excited about the possibilities and feeling like we have some momentum towards what we want!
If you would like to experience a visioning walk with me to get clear on your own work, life or business vision, please get in touch!