Moving Beyond Wishful Thinking: Crafting a Vision that Drives Action and Change

How leaders can establish achievable outcomes and shift from passive to empowered leadership.

In this blog, we’ll explore the importance of moving from passive wishful thinking (waiting for things to change) to active, realistic hope (taking intentional, purpose-driven action). The key to making this shift is aligning your heart’s desires with your mind’s strategic actions, creating a vision that’s achievable.

We’ll discuss how to reflect on what we want, how to challenge our assumptions, and how emotional intelligence and conscious self-leadership skills can guide us through this process, enabling individuals and organisations to think and act with clarity.

Shifting from Wishful Thinking to Realistic Hope: A Heart-Mind Transformation

Have you ever found yourself wishing for a change, only to find that nothing shifts, and you’re still stuck in the same patterns? It’s easy to fall into wishful thinking—waiting for something or someone else to make things better. But what if I told you that the shift you’re hoping for begins with a mindset shift from passive inaction to active, vision-inspired hope?

Realistic hope is about connecting your heart and mind to create tangible, achievable outcomes. It’s not about hoping something will change on its own but taking intentional, purposeful steps to make change happen. And this shift is possible for anyone, regardless of their situation.

For me, the shift came when I decided that I wanted to sell my nursing agency. I remember voicing this desire to my accountant and business coach at the time. Their responses were dismissive. ‘This business isn’t sellable,’ they said. But deep down, I knew they were wrong. While I wasn’t actively taking steps to achieve my goal, I started to realise that it wasn’t just about wanting to sell the company—it was about figuring out what would make it sellable to a national competitor.

Over the course of the next year, I created a personal vision linked to my company’s strategic plan. I set a clear goal (I was a ‘goals’ type back then): within two to three years, I would sell my company, and I set a target price in my mind. This wasn’t a vague wish anymore; it was a clear, defined goal. I started exploring what would make my agency appealing to a competitor. What steps would I need to take? How could I ensure the business was positioned to meet the due diligence checklists a potential buyer would ask about?

The moment came when I sat down with a retired businessman for coffee, who, as it turned out, was part of a team that bought nursing agencies across the country. I shared my plan to sell, and he said, ‘I’ll be in touch.’ A few months later, my business was sold, exactly as I had envisioned. No wishful thinking was involved. I took those baby steps toward the outcome I desired.

How Emotional Intelligence and Self-Leadership Can Guide You

This is where emotional intelligence and self-leadership come into play. It’s easy to let fear, doubt, and external opinions shape our actions, or inaction. But when we practice emotional intelligence, we can recognise these limiting beliefs and choose a different path. By building self-awareness and developing the capacity to make conscious choices, we take ownership of our outcomes.

Steps to Make the Shift

1. Clarify Your Desires: Not just a vague hope, but a clear, defined outcome. What do you truly want? What would achieving this mean for you, both personally and professionally? Personally, I practice the 7 Whys to drill down seven layers to see what is really important to me beneath the words I write as an outcome statement.
2. Challenge Assumptions and Doubts: Often, we hear negative voices telling us what isn’t possible. Instead of internalising those doubts, challenge them. Ask yourself empowering questions like, “What if I could?” or “What if this is possible?”
3. Align Your Heart and Mind: The heart may desire something—peace, connection, success—but the mind needs a plan to get there. When your heart’s desire is aligned with your mind’s actions, you create a tangible path forward.

A Simple Practice to Begin: Using the 5-Step Action Planning Process

When you’re serious about creating lasting change—whether it’s personal, professional, or both—simply setting a goal might not be enough. A goal is often a stepping stone, but what if you could approach it with a vision that truly inspires you? One that connects your heart and mind in a way that drives you to act with purpose and authenticity?

For a deeper, more transformative approach, I recommend using the 5-Step Action Planning Process. This is the process I use in my own life and with clients to set vision-inspired outcomes. It goes beyond just “goal-setting” and moves into a space where you’re not only deciding what you want, but also how to truly make it happen in a way that aligns with who you are at your core.

The 5-Step Action Planning Process is a holistic framework, developed by David Emerald, co-founder of The Center for The Empowerment Dynamic, the organisation through which I deliver the 3 Vital Questions training programs.

The 5-Step Action Planning Process allows you to:

1. Define your vision-inspired outcome: This is not just a goal—it’s a larger, more meaningful vision that connects with what you truly desire. Think about what really matters to you. For me (before I had this 5-Step Action Planning Tool), I wrote down that it was selling my business. However, I knew from later self-inquiry that the deeper vision was about freedom, growth, and living my values. This bigger picture put oxygen into the plan; it excited me yet calmed my mind. I found the clarity I’d never experienced before. Setting a high-quality outcome statement is not goal-setting. There is a difference.
2. Assess your current reality: Where are you now in relation to your vision? This step invites you to look honestly at all sorts of matters that relate to your current circumstances and acknowledge the gap between where you are and where you want to be. This is crucial for building a realistic plan, as it helps identify the challenges or barriers you’ll need to address.
3. Identify what’s within your control: Focus on what you can change and influence, rather than what’s out of your hands. This brings clarity to your next steps and gives you the power to take ownership of your path forward.
4. Create aligned action steps: What practical actions will move you toward your desired outcome? These steps should feel aligned with your vision—meaningful, authentic, and driven by your true desires. This is where intention meets action, and you begin making consistent progress towards your vision.
5. Regularly assess and adjust: Life isn’t static, and neither is your journey. As you take action, you’ll learn, grow, and adapt. Regularly check in with yourself or with someone who will guide you and keep you accountable. Assess if your actions are still in alignment with your vision and make adjustments as needed. This ensures you stay true to your path, even when challenges arise.

Tony Robbins’ 3 Mandates of Leadership: Guiding Principles for Transformation

I completed Tony Robbins’ Business Mastery Program in 2011, and one of the most impactful lessons I’ve carried with me are the three mandates of leadership. These guiding principles shaped my approach to both business and life, offering clarity and focus, especially in moments of challenge. Here’s how they’ve helped me navigate obstacles, both large and small:

1. See Things as They Are, Not Worse Than They Are
   As a leader, it’s vital to confront reality without exaggerating or letting negativity cloud your judgment. Acknowledging challenges, rather than inflating them, creates a grounded starting point for problem-solving. This has been particularly useful when leading teams through difficult situations, helping me stay focused and calm.
2. See Things Better Than They Are
   A leader doesn’t just accept the current reality—they see the potential for growth and improvement. By envisioning a better future, leaders inspire others to strive for it too. This mindset has been pivotal in my journey, especially when I decided I wanted to sell my business. Rather than just wishing for it, I saw it as a bigger vision and took tangible steps to make it happen.
3. Make Things the Way You See Them
   Leaders take proactive steps to turn their vision into reality. It’s about translating dreams into actionable plans with creativity and persistence. This mandate was crucial in the process of making my business sellable. It wasn’t enough to simply want it—I had to break down the steps and work toward them methodically.

Bonus!

I looked up YouTube to see if there was a recording of Tony sharing this lesson and found one. Here it is if you’d prefer to listen. Even though it was recorded in 2014, 11 years later, it is still very much relevant! I forgot how fast he speaks.

A Practice for Your Leadership Journey

Whether you’re tackling a large visionary outcome or managing the day-to-day challenges of leadership, these mandates can act as a guiding force. Try repeating them as a daily mantra, or print them out and place them where you and your people can see them each day. I’ve found they help me refocus on what’s important and move forward with intention, especially in moments where drama and escalation might otherwise derail me.

Every time I encountered situations filled with drama or uncertainty, thinking about these three principles brought me clarity and focus. They gave me the courage to steer my business in the direction I wanted and to make meaningful things happen, even when the road ahead felt unclear.

As leaders, our role is to both manage the present and envision and create what’s possible. So, let me ask you: What good big things do you want to make happen today, this week, month, quarter or year?

Thank you,

Susan