Have you ever heard the word ‘chazown’? Probably not, unless you read Craig Groeschel’s incredible book about finding your vision. He reveals to us that ‘chazown’ is actually the Hebrew word for vision.
You know, in the recent years I’ve been meeting more and more people who don’t know their purpose, their vision in life. At the same time they would desperately want to find out what God had in mind when He created them. Are you one of those people? What is your vision? What is your calling?
There are three powerful steps that will help you find your chazown. According to Craig Groeschel, the first step you need to take is define your core values.
Core Values
What do you value the most in your life? Is there anything that stirs up righteous anger inside of you? What drives you when you make your most important decisions? It can be your family, freedom, faith, discipline, success, humility, patience, justice, kindness, relationships, giving, etc.
Make a list of your 5-7 values and set it aside. We will come back to it.
Your next step will be to identify your gifts and talents.
Gifts and Talents
Think about your strengths. What are you really good at? What are you passionate about and enjoy doing the most? When you’re engaged in this activity, you sometimes lose track of time. Try to remember the last time other people were saying you’re really good at something. Take a note of that skill.
Is there anything you secretly believe you can do, but you’ve never tried? You might even dream of doing it one day, but for some reason you have doubts and fears. What do you do that seems to have the most effect on other people?
The answers to all these questions and hints will help you make a list of your gifts and talents. You can call them your strengths as well.
Past Experiences
Finally, we’re coming to the third step. Think of the main events in your life, negative and positive, which influenced you the most. These experiences shaped you into who you are today. Usually, these are emotionally strong episodes which left a noticeable trace in your memory.
After you remembered the events (it helps to draw a timeline with milestones), think what they all have in common. How are you different inwardly because of what you enjoyed and endured?
Got the list of past experiences? Now you’re ready to bring it all together and write a one-sentence purpose statement that describes your vision or ‘chazown’.
Bringing it all together
The final step in this process will include some drawing. Are you up for it? You’ll need to draw three circles on a piece of paper like you see on the picture.
Locate the part where all three circles overlap. This red part is your ‘chazown’. Ok, this is just a graphic representation of your vision. Now, let’s get to the purpose statement itself.
Put all three lists in front of you: your core values, gifts and talents and your past experiences. What do they have in common? Write down all similarities and let them inspire to answer the following questions: Is there something specific God is calling you to do starting now or sometime in the future? What possible title could be for the next chapter of your life?
Think of one action-focused sentence and let it motivate you to move forward in your life. May it serve you and many other people around you!
Please, share your purpose statements in the comments below to inspire others. I will look forward to hearing from you.
