My Personal Vision

While attending the Upper Midwest Region-Association of College and University Housing Officers, I had the opportunity to attend a variety of workshops and presentations. The one that stuck out the most in my mind was a workshop on work-life balance. The work-life balance discussion came after a good chunk of time was spent on defining one’s own values and an action plan based on them. I started out with a list of over 60 values, narrowed it 30, then 15, then 10, then 5 and finally the top 3. My top 3 were respect, variety, and friendship. After figuring out how important these values were to me, it became easier to share my personal vision with others.

Since I do have this understanding of my personal goals, I feel that it will also help me be seen as a more credible and ethical leader. I know what I am not willing to sacrifice on and what I stand for; when faced with situations I will behave according to these values. This ethical behavior, especially in the modern business world will be extremely helpful. Also being able to clearly define these values will make me a better leader.

This personal vision has not only come into play throughout issues in the work setting, but also in deciding who my friends are, which graduate schools I want to look at, and all other activities that I partake in. I never realized how much of my life is defined by few words. Since finding out this information, and reassessing it on occasion, I feel that I have grown as a person. My personal vision provides a great check to make sure that I am doing what I feel I should be doing and behaving in a way consistent with the goals I have in life.