Write a clear, practical life vision statement you’ll use, with guided prompts and examples grounded in proven coaching methods.
If you had to write one or two sentences that described what you're building your life toward — not what you're doing, but what it's all for — what would they say?
A VP or director who has spent a decade building a career is now questioning whether they built the right thing. External metrics are strong but they describe feeling hollow, disconnected from family, and unsure what they actually want. They've never done this kind of reflection before.
The resistance here will likely be practical: 'I don't have time for this kind of thinking.' Position the worksheet as a calibration exercise rather than a reflection exercise - 'You've been optimizing for something. Let's check whether that target is still the right one.' Some high achievers have never actually defined what success looks like beyond the next promotion. The life area prompts will surface that gap quickly. Allow the Career & Work area to fill in last - it's the one they'll want to default to, and it tends to crowd out the others.
If five of the six life areas have blank or one-word responses and the Career section is dense, the exercise has captured something important. Don't rush to fill the blanks - the sparseness is data. Also watch whether the 'Daily Experience' area gets abstract ('productive and meaningful') versus specific. The more abstract it is, the less the client has thought about what they actually want their days to feel like.
Start with the Themes section - read it alongside the six areas and ask what's missing. What did they not write in any area that they might actually want? Then move to the vision statement draft: read it aloud and ask one question - 'Does this describe your actual life in ten years, or your resume?' That question usually cracks something open. The accuracy check is where the real work happens.
If multiple life areas describe isolation, depletion, or estrangement from family in ways that seem entrenched rather than situational, the vision exercise may surface grief about what has already been lost. Severity: moderate. Stay with the emotion if it appears rather than redirecting to the statement-drafting. This is a moment for the coaching, not the tool.
A professional in their mid-30s or 40s has two or three meaningfully different options in front of them - a promotion into management, staying in an individual contributor role they're exceptional at, or leaving to start something of their own. Each option is real and each has genuine appeal.
This scenario uses the tool differently - not to create a new vision but to test existing ones against each other. 'Before you weigh those options against each other, let's describe the life you're trying to build. Then we'll see which path fits it best.' The worksheet keeps the client from evaluating options entirely on external criteria (salary, status, security) and anchors them in what they're actually optimizing for. Complete the tool before discussing the specific options.
Watch whether the 'Contribution' and 'Growth & Learning' areas shift in tone compared to 'Career & Work.' Clients who write very different things in those two sections than they do in the career section often know something about their options that they haven't said out loud yet. The misalignment between what they want to contribute and what their career path currently enables is often the decision.
After completing the vision statement, introduce the options. For each one, ask: 'Does this path build toward this vision, away from it, or sideways?' The directional framing is more useful than a pro/con analysis because it names momentum rather than just position. Then ask which option they would regret not trying - the answer to that question often runs ahead of the analysis.
If the client's vision statement describes a fundamentally different life from the one any of their current options leads to - and they seem to recognize that - the conversation may shift from decision-making coaching to exploring what's actually in the way of the life they described. Severity: low. That's not a flag so much as a direction worth following.
A client is within a year of retirement or has recently left a long-held role that defined much of their identity. They have financial security but feel unmoored - unsure what structure, purpose, or contribution looks like in this next chapter.
The resistance here is often masked as practicality: 'I have plenty of plans.' Scratch the surface and there is often real uncertainty about identity without the professional role as scaffolding. Frame the tool as designing a new chapter, not filling empty time. 'What matters to you now may be different from what mattered at 45. Let's start there rather than assuming.' The 'Daily Experience' area often becomes the anchor for people in this transition - it's less about goals and more about how they want to feel.
If the 'Contribution' section is blank or vague, the client may be struggling more with purpose than they're acknowledging. Professional identity often carried their sense of contribution - when that structure goes, people feel purposeless even when they don't name it that way. Also watch whether 'Relationships' area describes others' needs ('spend time with grandchildren') rather than the client's actual desires - the distinction matters for whether this is a vision or a duty list.
Start with the gap between 'Career & Work' (which may be largely empty or past-tense) and 'Contribution' (which is often where the real energy is). Then ask: 'What does the vision statement you wrote describe - the life you're designing, or the life you think you should want?' That distinction shows up more often in retirement transitions than in any other context. End with the one near-term action - it should be concrete enough to actually do in the next 30 days.
If the client describes the upcoming or recent transition with relief in their words but grief or anxiety in their affect - or if they have been avoiding this kind of reflection for months - the vision exercise may be a first step toward processing loss of identity rather than a pure goal-setting exercise. Severity: low to moderate. Proceed with the tool while staying attentive to what the transition is costing them emotionally.
A client making decisions that feel off but can't say why
LifeMy client says they know what they value but their choices don't reflect it
LifeA client feels successful but unfulfilled and wants to understand why
