 All right. Now you've got a killer mission statement and you're ready to go. But wait, there's more. You didn't think we were done yet, did you? Welcome back everyone and thanks for taking one more step towards becoming one of the great leaders of tomorrow. By now you're probably feeling pretty good about your mission statement because you put a lot of time and thought and self-reflection into really, clearly and concisely describing what it is you're trying to do and why that's important to making the world a better place. Today we're going to talk about something that complements your mission statement and that's your vision. And your vision is going to be different from your mission in a few different ways. The first way is that your mission is not going to be about what you're trying to do and why it's important. Your vision is going to be more about what you believe the solution is and how you see that solution in your own mind and how you're going to get there. The second way your vision is going to be different from your mission is that it's going to be much more descriptive and I don't need longer or more detail. When I say descriptive, I mean you're going to try to put your vision, your idea of what the solution to this problem is and how you're going to get there, you're going to try to put that into descriptive words using as many of your five senses as possible. The touch, the feel, the taste, the smell, the sight, the sound of what the solution looks like. And the reason you're going to do this is because you're going to try to get an emotional response, evoke an emotional response in other people, whether that's your customers, whether that's your team, whether that's your employees or just the world in general, you're trying to get them to share the same passion and commitment to achieving your mission that you have. So just like last time, to get you in the right frame of mind of writing your own vision statement to complement your mission statement, let's look at a couple of examples. The first example I have for you today is Habitat for Humanity. And their vision statement is a world where everyone has a decent place to live. So you see, this is a simple and clear and concise vision statement to go along with a mission statement. And it doesn't explicitly evoke senses or emotion, but what it does do is it draws on the experience that we all have of having a safe place to live or desiring a safe place to live and the feelings of comfort that come along with that. The second example is Amazon.com. Their vision statement is to be Earth's most customer-centric company to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online. Now I think this is a really cool vision statement because it's community and customer focused. And what this vision statement does is it connects with our desires for quality products and convenience at the same time. I also really like this because it sets not just an expectation for the customer of what they can expect from the company, but a level of service for every employee at Amazon.com to strive for. Another example of an amazing vision statement is Dr. Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream Speech. Now it's a long speech, but there are many memorable moments in parts of this speech that engage your senses and evoke your emotions and get you connected to the idea of how we can all work together to make the world a better place for everyone. Now you may be asking yourself, can I combine my mission and my vision statements into one statement? And the answer is absolutely yes, you can. Many companies and organizations do this. I find that these combined statements tend to get a little long, but if you're putting it together and you can make it clear and concise and still engage those senses and evoke those emotions, by all means put your vision and mission into the same statement. So just like when you were putting together your mission statement, don't feel bad if this is not something you can get together all in one sitting. This is another exercise that takes time and self-reflection and thought to really try to engage those senses and evoke those emotions that you want to get so that people are just as passionate about achieving your mission as you are. Again, just like with the mission statement, when I was working on the vision statement for Evil Genius Leadership, it took me a long time. It took me a lot of thought. I finally landed on a world where leaders based their decisions on a balance of mission accomplishment, community focus and compassion and empathy for people. And that's really what Evil Genius Leadership is all about. So here's a few tips for you as you get started writing your vision statement. First, find a quiet place. Sit down, close your eyes. Imagine a world where you've already achieved your mission and what do your five senses tell you about the world now? What does the solution to the problem look like? What does it feel like? What does it sound like? And not just what does it look like to you, what does it look like to the people you've tried to solve this problem for, and what emotions does it evoke in those people? How do they feel now that you've solved their problem? The second tip I have for you as you write your vision statement is to choose your words very carefully. Remember, you're trying to engage people's senses and evoke an emotional connection so that they are as passionate about your mission as you are. Use the thesaurus feature on your computer or your phone, or use an actual thesaurus, and try to choose the perfect word that exactly conveys the sense you're trying to convey or the emotion you're trying to connect to. Finally, it's absolutely okay after a reasonable period of time to go back and reevaluate your mission and vision statements. You don't want to change them every other week, but after a period of months or years, it's okay to go back and look at them and see if you're still focused on solving the problem you're trying to solve and helping the people you're trying to help in the first place. The worst thing you can do is botch yourself into a corner where you can't actually achieve your mission and vision because the situation changed. Once you've got your awesome vision statement written, go ahead and post it in the comments. We'd love to see it, and if you're having a little bit of trouble, contact us. We'd love to help you out and help you really pick those specific words to help you engage people's senses and connect emotionally so that they're as passionate about accomplishing your mission as you are. Check back later in the week on the Evil Genius Leadership website. We're going to have a blog post that has some more tips on writing your vision statement, and if you want to save yourself a trip to the website, just get our content delivered here in-box. You can do that by clicking on the subscribe button to the left, and it's really the easiest way to get everything we're putting out there. Thanks again for watching, and remember, the future is out there. Leave the way.