How a Well Crafted Vision Statement Can Make you a Winner

This much ignored activity is at the heart of success in fitness endeavors, or any endeavor for that matter, business included. It has gotten a bad name over the years because it has been asked to do things beyond its range of usefulness by people who are unconscious to its possibilities.It’s not magic but it does have indispensable usefulness when properly used. Your personal fitness program will undoubtedly benefit from sound visioning practices as will your business.

What constitutes sound visioning in this context? Well for starters, visioning is the foundation for goal setting. If you can’t visualize something better, how can you set a realistic goal to achieve? Without goals what chance does a business have? So the process is sound and of value. There should be solid emotional content in the statement. A vision should be more than a picture of what could be. Andy Stanley, a popular minister and motivational speaker, defines a vision as “a picture of what could be compelled by the conviction that it should be.” (emphasis added) That’s a little different than just a picture of what could be. Stanley’s definition is something that will connect with people, the standard definition, not so much.

Something that connects emotionally with the reader is what’s required. This may take a little more thought than most usually put into this exercise. If the statement is flat it will not be remembered.  If not remembered , or at least respected,  it won’t be used. A vision statement should be guiding all decision making that goes on in a company or any planning exercise. It should also be the basis for evaluating day-to-day performance.  Think about it for a minute: It’s what you hope you or your company will be someday. An effective argument can be made that anything that does not advance you or your company toward achieving that vision is probably not a worthwhile activity or outcome.

Goal setting in general and the lengthy exercises involved in establishing a worthwhile vision statement have fallen into disrepute. Like the proverbial “brainstorming” session that generates undifferentiated detail for consideration the necessary thinking required to reach useful levels of thought is difficult and frequently avoided by participants as too painful to accomplish. The results, because of this shortcoming, are often lacklustre and of limited usefulness even when used properly. Hence people rightfully resist being held to these second rate commitments. Make the effort. Pay the price. A well crafted goal or vision statement is often all the motivation required to exert the discipline necessary to succeed over tough times either personally or in business. We all know tough times will come. For what valuable prize are you pushing ahead? More information please visit this site www.merrimacmarketing.net

The Ease of Blogging

A lot of business people worry about having a blog to which they have to contribute regularly on their website. They ask themselves, “Who cares what I think?”; ”Oh, I can’t write worth a hoot!”; “I never got good marks for writing in school.”; and the list goes on, and on and on. People have as many excuses not to write publicly as there are people.

The reasons for writing a blog for your site have really very little to do with you. Your blog is for your prospective clients, primarily. It will serve as a place where they can get answers to their questions about you and your offering. Ideally, they will be able to get enough information from your blog and from other parts of your site to become comfortable making a buying decision, to buy from someone they have come to like and trust. A blog is a place for you to supply information, yes, but more importantly it is a place where people can get to know you and what you stand for. Don’t write off the importance of what you stand for. It is what helps your business stand out from all the rest. For one thing it can help establish you as one of those rare people for whom no question is too small or too silly. That is rare, indeed. Such an attitude among prospects would be invaluable.

It really is as simple as, if you can say it, you can write it. The type of writing you will do in your blog is different than what you did in school. No one is marking you here. You speak to people when you sell your product or service, don’t you? If you are successful enough at that to survive, that standard of communication will serve you fine as a writer in your blog. Say it first. If spelling or punctuation is a problem find someone you like and trust to be your proofreader. Their only criteria need to be what you want them to correct for you and whether or not they get your point. You obviously make a point when you sell. Your writing needs to make the same point(s). Grammar is secondary to the point(s) you wish to convey.

More important than technical quality in your blog writing is your “voice”. This is a concept many people have trouble understanding but it is important in relationship building and branding, which are two of the key things you are doing with your blog. Everyone has a way of expressing themselves; the way they use contractions, or not; the metaphors (funny expressions) they use; their peculiar (sometimes) grammatical habits of expression. Our voice is one of the things that attract people to us. This is one of the reasons a conversational style is important. This is also why it is important to “be yourself” when you write. If you talk and write the same way, people will recognize you when they meet you. If they have come to like and trust you as a source of hassle-free information, help and ideas, you will have a leg up on the buying process. (You should have twigged by now to the value of social media in this “friending” process) For example, Merri writes a column for the local paper which I proof-read for her. The first thing I check for is that it sounds like her. It is not my job to critique her choice of topics, just whether it works as a communication in her “voice”. Punctuation and spelling is usually an important part of that.

Anyway, we will revisit this topic in more detail later but that, I think, takes care of three very important considerations. Most important, what do you think? Take the time to drop your thoughts in the appropriate box. More information please visit this site www.merrimacmarketing.net