Vision and Purpose are the topics of today’s conversation with my friend Rob Challenger of Tremont Street Advisors in Galveston, Texas.
I’ve come to believe that most people’s choices with financial planning only make sense when they’re moving in a clear, purposeful direction. If you try to make financial planning decisions without a sense of purpose for your life, you’ll be easily sidetracked and end up confused and empty.
Defining or clarifying your sense of purpose is an essential element—actually, the essential element—in financial planning. The needle on the compass of your life directs everything you are, everything you do, and everything you have.
Vision and Purpose and Intention
Vision, Intention, and Means: A Very Personal Journey In my own life and in the lives of countless people I’ve counseled, I’ve realized that change happens most readily and permanently if people have a clear picture of the future, a commitment to take steps of progress, and good handles on the steps they need to take. Elements of change, then, are vision, intention, and means.
My book is about financial planning and its structured with these three features in mind:
— The first three chapters focus on creating or clarifying our vision or our purpose in life. As we go though those chapters, some people may think, Why is he taking so long to get to the nuts and bolts of budgeting and investing? The reason is that these three chapters are essential to give us direction and motivation for the choices we make in the rest of the book.
— Chapter 4 puts vision and purpose to work in “The Blueprint for Financial Success.” The analysis we do in this step stimulates our intention to make the changes we need to make based on a clear vision and purpose for our lives.
— The rest of the book, chapters 5 through 8, applies vision and purpose to some important principles and resources we can use to achieve the goals we set in the Blueprint.
I make no assumptions about what your vision and purpose in life, what it is or what it should be. The conversation we had about vision and purpose in this interview and in the pages of Make Your Money Count are intended to help you clarify your life’s vision and purpose so you can connect everything you have and everything you do to what matters most to you.
As I explained the idea of vision and purpose in financial planning to a friend of mine, he gave a half smile and shook his head. He told me, “Yeah, but most of the financial planning books that are written by Christians have the subtle— or not so subtle— intention of getting people to see that their vision and purpose should be to donate their money to the church’s building fund. Is that your angle, too?” No, I told him, that’s not even on my radar. I hope people will think, dream, and plan so they accomplish something that gives them personal fulfillment.
That “vision and purpose” certainly involves their family’s security, but it may also involve serving people in need through a host of organizations: Amnesty International, their church, Habitat for Humanity, or any of dozens of other groups that are trying to make a difference in people’s lives.
As you’ve probably guessed, I’m a follower of Christ, so my vision and purpose in life is shaped to a large degree by my understanding of God’s desires for me and every other person who follows him. The most powerful motivation I’ve known is the deep sense of gratitude that comes from experiencing the unconditional love and acceptance of Jesus Christ. Knowing his love and acceptance is by far the most incredible experience of my life. But in my work as a financial planner, I meet with Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, agnostics, atheists, Jewish people, and others from every kind of religious stripe. Vision and purpose is a universal language that impacts every human being.
Most of the principles of spending, saving, investing, and giving transcend all religions. We can apply them no matter what we believe about God or our vision and purpose. My vision and purpose, though, is impacted by my faith which causes me to look beyond my own needs and try to help others. My hope is that this interview will give you a few “Aha!” moments when a light comes on and you realize a truth or an opportunity you’d missed before. I hope you’ll think deeply about your vision and purpose.
Thinking about the vision and purpose for your life will inevitably lead to choices to move in a new direction (or go back to a previously beaten path). As you clarify your vision and purpose and connect your resources to what you really value, I believe you’ll feel relief and contentment, and you’ll celebrate knowing your life counts for something much bigger than yourself.
The process of clarifying the vision and purpose for our lives leads to connecting our resources to what matters most and the process is exhilarating, and sometimes, it’s very hard.
