Define the Destination

Get clear about the future you’re actually trying to build.

Step out of the day-to-day and think carefully about what you hope is true ten years from now—in your faith, household, work, business, and the lives of the people you’re building for.

You don’t need a polished vision statement. You just need enough space to think honestly about what you want to be true.

Don’t have time to give this your full attention right now?

Send me a link to do this later.
A man looking toward a distant horizon, taking time to consider the future beyond the immediate demands in front of him.

Start with the destination

It’s hard to build toward a future you haven’t defined.

Most business owners spend far more time thinking about what needs to happen this week than what they’re actually trying to build over the next ten years.

Revenue needs to grow. Someone needs to be hired. A problem needs to be fixed. The next opportunity needs a decision.

And slowly, almost imperceptibly, the urgent starts deciding the important.

You can build a successful business that way. You can also wake up ten years from now and realize you’ve built a life you never consciously chose.

Before you decide how to build, get clear about what you’re building toward.

An established Christian business owner looking beyond his immediate work toward the larger life and responsibilities the business is meant to serve.

A holy means to a more glorious end

Your business matters. But it isn’t the destination.

Your business matters. Build it well. Make it profitable. Serve people exceptionally. Create good work. Build something durable.

But the business exists inside a much larger calling—your relationship with Christ, your household, your children, your work, your church, your responsibilities, your generosity, the people you’re called to serve, and the generations that may come after you.

So before asking what your business should become, there’s a more fundamental question:

What is the future you’re actually trying to build?

Define the Destination gives you room to wrestle seriously with that question.

The exercise

Ten questions. One destination to get clearer about.

This isn’t a conventional vision-planning worksheet. The questions are designed to help you look beyond today, get underneath your goals, and cut through the noise until the things that matter most become clearer.

Look Ahead

Step outside today’s constraints and describe what you hope is true ten years from now—without immediately worrying about how you’ll make it happen.

Get Underneath the Goals

Think carefully about faithfulness, household, work, business, stewardship, priorities, and the things you aren’t willing to sacrifice along the way.

Cut Through the Noise

Decide what matters most, confront whether your current trajectory is likely to get you there, and name what you already know needs to change.

Don’t have time to give this your full attention right now?

Send me a link to do this later.
A thoughtful working draft on a desk, representing a first articulation of a future vision that can be reviewed, challenged, and refined.

When you’re finished

I’ll give you something to react to.

Once you’ve completed the exercise, I’ll take what you’ve shared and look for the themes, priorities, desires, convictions, and tensions running through your answers.

Then I’ll synthesize them into your Defined Destination Draft.

I can’t define your vision for you. And I’m not going to pretend I can.

The draft is my attempt to say your own thinking back to you more clearly—to take what’s scattered across ten thoughtful answers and put something coherent on the page.

Maybe you’ll read it and think, “Yes. That’s it.”

Or maybe you’ll think, “No. That’s not quite right.”

Either response is useful. Because now you’re not staring at a blank canvas. You have something to challenge, sharpen, rewrite, and ultimately make your own.

The goal isn’t for me to get your destination exactly right. The goal is to help you get clearer about it.

Who it’s for

This is probably for you if...

The future still feels vague.

You have goals and ambitions, but the larger picture of what you’re actually trying to build still feels fragmented or mostly stuck in your head.

The tradeoffs aren’t clear.

You’re making consequential decisions, but you aren’t yet clear enough about what matters most to know what you should optimize for.

You need something to react to.

You don’t need someone else to tell you what to want. You need help getting what’s already inside you out onto the page.

Look farther ahead

You don’t need the whole plan yet.

Start by getting clearer about the destination.

You don’t need to know exactly how you’ll get there. You don’t even need to have the destination perfectly defined.

You just need enough distance from the day-to-day to think honestly about what you’re building toward.

Start there.

Don’t have time to give this your full attention right now?

Send me a link to do this later.