Vision GPS – The Clarity to Action Framework by Jake Smolarek

Why Clarity Beats Motivation Every Time

“Most people think they need more motivation. What they really need is clarity and direction.” – Jake Smolarek

I see it every week with clients: the ones who succeed fastest aren’t the most “motivated.” They’re the ones who know exactly where they’re going.
Most people aren’t lazy. They’re not broken. They’ve simply never stopped to decide what they actually want. Without that, life becomes random, a job you didn’t plan to take, a relationship you drifted into, a lifestyle that “just happened.” You wake up years later, wondering: “How did I get here?”

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there. But you probably won’t like the destination. It’s the same with a GPS: without a location, the system is useless. And here’s the thing, you don’t even need a perfect address to start. Sometimes all you need is to know you’re heading north. That’s already more than most people have.

I created Vision GPS in 2015 during a coaching session with a client who was struggling to make decisions. Frustrated, he said: “If I had a GPS for my life, I’d know what to do.” That line hit me hard. I saw exactly what he meant, and that evening, I sat down to map out the first version of the framework. Over time, I’ve refined it with hundreds of entrepreneurs, executives, and high-performers.

Vision GPS is built on four core pillars:

• Vision – Your ultimate destination.
• Goals – Checkpoints along the way.
• Planning Process – A flexible route that adapts to change.
• Systems – The daily movement that keeps you going.

When these are in place, you stop drifting like a ship without a rudder. You start deciding. You act faster, with more confidence, and you finally know why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Destination vs Direction – Why Even a Rough North Beats Standing Still

One of the biggest myths I see is that people think they need a perfect plan before they can start. They wait for the “right time,” the “perfect clarity,” the moment when every detail is mapped out. That moment never comes.

What you actually need is far simpler: a direction. Even a rough one.
Because standing still is the fastest way to fall behind.

Here’s the metaphor I use with my clients. Imagine you’re in London and you want to get to Edinburgh. There are three possible levels of clarity:

1. Exact address – This is 100% clarity. You know precisely where you’re going, so your GPS can give you the fastest, most efficient route. You’ll still hit traffic or roadworks, but you’ll reach your destination with minimal detours.
2. City only – You don’t have the street name, but knowing the city is enough to start the journey. You might take a few wrong turns once you get close, but you’ll still arrive.
3. Direction only – You just know you need to head north. It’s not perfect, and you’ll make more course corrections, but you will still make progress, and that alone puts you ahead of most people, who aren’t moving at all.

I’ve worked with clients who started with nothing more than their “north.” One, in particular, came to me with no clear career plan, only the feeling that he wanted “more.” We defined a rough direction, and within a year, he had transitioned industries and doubled his income. The exact address came later, but he wouldn’t have reached it without starting to move.

The real danger? Having neither a destination nor a direction. That’s when you drift, reacting to whatever comes your way, like a ship without a rudder in open water. Drift long enough, and you’ll wake up in a place you never chose, living a life you never designed.

This is where I bring in the 80/20 principle. As I explain to my clients, and as Nassim Nicholas Taleb describes in The Black Swan, around 20% of life is unpredictable. The other 80%? You can plan for it. If you know your “north,” you can design most of your journey, accept the unexpected 20%, and still end up where you want to be.

“You don’t need a perfect vision to start. You just need to know where ‘north’ is.” – Jake Smolarek

The 80/20 of Life Planning – Designing the Controllable, Preparing for the Unpredictable

Every now and then, a client says to me: “Jake, life just happens to you.”
And my answer is always the same: “Bullsh*t. Life only ‘happens’ if you give up the driver’s seat.”

Here’s what I believe, and what Vision GPS is built on: at least 70–80% of your life can be planned. The other 20–30%? Those are the “Black Swans” Nassim Nicholas Taleb writes about in his book The Black Swan. They’re the rare, unpredictable events that can shake your plans, good or bad.

That book is brilliant, but it’s not an easy read. It took me a year to get through it the first time because the language is dense. I’ve now read it three times, slowly digesting every chapter. One of the lines that stuck with me is this:

“History and societies do not crawl. They make jumps.” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan

Those “jumps” are your 20%. You can’t predict them, but you can decide how prepared you’ll be when they come.

Let me give you an example. I had a client with a thriving physical business, a large warehouse operation selling various products. Then COVID hit. Foot traffic: zero. He called me in a panic: “Jake, my plan isn’t working anymore.”

I told him: “Of course it’s not. Your plan was for a world that doesn’t exist right now. This is why you need a planning process, not just a plan.”

We pivoted fast. I said: “You’re going online. You’ll sell your products digitally.”
He said: “But I don’t know how.”
I said: “I don’t care. You’ll learn, and I’ll help you.”

My marketing agency set him up with Google Ads, Meta Ads, and SEO. Within weeks, we had his online store live. Within months, he was back in profit. Today, he’s thriving, not despite the Black Swan, but because he adapted to it.

And that’s the point: without Vision GPS, a Black Swan wipes you out. With it, you know your destination, so you can adjust the route and keep moving forward.

Plan for the 80% you can control. Accept the 20% you can’t. And be ready to move the second it arrives.

1. Vision – Your Long-Term Definition of Life

My definition:
“Your Vision is the long-term definition of the life you want, clear enough to guide your daily actions, flexible enough to adapt when life changes.”

Vision GPS is a life‑design and strategic planning method that connects long‑term decision‑making with practical goal‑setting and daily systems.

When you have Vision, you stop wasting energy on meaningless decisions. You know where you’re going, so every “yes” and every “no” becomes faster, sharper, and easier. Without Vision, you can spend years working hard, but in the wrong direction.

One client once told me: “I’m not really a visionary.”
I asked: “How old are you?” He said 40.
I replied: “Then your Vision is the next 60 years of your life. That’s what we’re planning.”
That’s when he got it. Vision isn’t about the next 12 months. It’s about designing the decades ahead, your health, relationships, business, lifestyle, and impact.

Vision ≠ Wish List

A wish list is “nice to have.” Vision is a decision.

• Wish: “I’d like to travel more.”
  Vision: “I will live in a way that allows me to spend three months abroad every year.”
• Wish: “I’d like to be healthy.”
  Vision: “I will be fit, strong, and mobile at 85.”
• Wish: “I’d like a better relationship.”
  Vision: “I will be with a partner who shares my values and challenges me to grow.”
• Wish: “I’d like a better job.”
  Vision: “I will build a career that excites me, pays me well, and gives me freedom.”

When you decide what matters, you stop chasing everything, and start building the things worth having.

Most People Never Plan Their Life

Most people can spend a year planning their wedding or months organising a two-week holiday. Yet they spend almost no time planning the one thing that matters most: their life.

“Most people plan their wedding or holiday in detail… but never plan their life.” – Jake Smolarek

Without Vision, you drift. You take whatever opportunity is in front of you, say yes to things you don’t care about, and wonder why you’re tired, busy, and unfulfilled.

You Can’t Have Everything – And That’s a Good Thing

Vision is about clarity and selection. You can’t have everything.
But you can have everything that truly matters to you.

In a world where everyone is trying to have it all, Vision forces you to choose. And that’s where the power is, in deciding, with intention, how you will spend your life.

“You can’t have everything, but you can have everything that matters to you.” – Jake Smolarek

Vision is your filter. It’s your compass. It’s the answer to the question: “What am I building?”
Get it right, and every step you take, in business, in health, in relationships, moves you closer to the life you’ve deliberately chosen.

This is the foundation of my work in both life coaching and business coaching, and it’s why I see Vision GPS as not just a mindset tool, but a full strategic life planning framework.

As highlighted in my feature in The Times, my approach is grounded in real-world experience, leadership, and entrepreneurship, cutting through the noise to deliver results that last.

2. Goals – Your Checkpoints

If your Vision is the destination, your goals are the checkpoints that tell you you’re on track. Without them, you have no way to measure progress, celebrate wins, or spot when you’re drifting off course.

The difference between a wish and a goal is accountability:

• Wish: “I wish I could lose weight.”
• Goal: “I will lose 10kg in six months, and here’s my plan.”

In Vision GPS, every goal is SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Without that structure, “goals” become vague hopes, nice to think about but useless for action.

The same rule applies in business: if you can’t measure it, you can’t build it.
Wish: “I want to grow my business.”
SMART goal: “I will increase my monthly recurring revenue by 20% within the next 12 months by launching two new high-margin products and delegating customer support.”

Whether you’re applying this in personal growth, leadership, or business, setting clear checkpoints is part of long-term decision-making, the same principles I use with my business coaching clients to keep them moving towards their bigger vision.

One client came to me with a long list of targets: new job, marathon, side business, more time with family. Impressive, right? The problem was none of them connected to his Vision. He was exhausted, constantly busy, and still felt stuck. Once we stripped that list down to the 20% of goals that would deliver 80% of his desired life, his energy and results exploded.

That’s the danger, goals without Vision are just random tasks. You can tick every box, hit every target, and still end up in a life you don’t actually want.

When set with intention, your goals create three things:

1. Direction – They point you towards your Vision.
2. Momentum – Small wins create the drive for bigger ones.
3. Evidence – Proof that your actions are working.

“Without Vision, your goals are just random tasks, and random tasks rarely lead to a meaningful life.” – Jake Smolarek

3. Planning Process – Your Flexible Route

A plan is static. A planning process is alive.

A static plan dies the moment reality changes, and it will change.

This idea isn’t new. Over 2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War: “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” His teachings weren’t just about military strategy. They were about adaptability, speed, and recalculating when the battlefield changes. Vision GPS applies the same principle: the plan itself matters less than your ability to adjust it in real time. This section is partly inspired by that philosophy.

When COVID-19 hit, most people froze. One of my clients ran a successful physical store and warehouse. Overnight, his customer flow vanished. His first words to me were, “Jake, my plan is dead.”
I told him: “Good. Now we use the planning process.”

Within weeks, we built him an online sales system from scratch, website, Google Ads, Meta Ads, SEO, and he was back in business. His destination hadn’t changed. Only the route had.

“Plans are for tourists. Planning processes are for people who want to win.” – Jake Smolarek

In Vision GPS, the planning process means you always have options. It’s like a GPS that recalculates when you miss a turn or hit a roadblock.

Your Vision is the constant. Your planning process is the steering wheel.

In Vision GPS, I use a simple 3-step “Recalculation Protocol” whenever life forces a change of route:

1. Observe – Identify what’s changed and why your current route no longer works.
2. Adjust – Choose the best alternative path aligned with your Vision.
3. Deploy – Commit to the new plan immediately, without hesitation.

This keeps you moving forward with purpose, even when the terrain changes unexpectedly.

4. Systems – Your Daily Movement

James Clear writes in Atomic Habits: “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

I tell my clients the same thing in a different way:

“Your Vision is the destination. Your systems are the engine. Without the engine, the car doesn’t move, no matter how clear the map is.”

Systems are the habits, routines, rituals and environments that keep you moving forward even on bad days. They make success boring, in the best possible way, because they remove the need for constant motivation.

In Atomic Habits, Clear shares a simple example: if you want to increase your chances of going to the gym, don’t rely on willpower alone. Create a system. Lay out your workout clothes, shoes, and water bottle the night before and place them in the middle of your living room. That visual cue makes the behaviour almost automatic.

I’ve seen the same principle work with my clients. One client wanted to write a book but only wrote “when inspired.” Three months later, he had nothing but scattered notes. We built a system: one hour of writing every weekday at 8 AM, phone in another room, no excuses. Six months later, his first draft was done.

Systems aren’t just for personal goals, they drive business results too. For me, running Google Ads is a system. Running Meta Ads is a system. SEO is a system that works 24/7. And now, Large Language Model Optimisation (LLMO) has become a system in itself, one my agency runs around the clock for me and my clients. It ensures that AI models discover, reference, and recommend our work automatically, turning AI itself into a lead generation engine.

Without systems, even the best goals collapse. With them, progress becomes inevitable. And the best systems? They’re sustainable, adaptable, and fully aligned with your Vision GPS.

As I explained in NerdWallet, avoiding the ‘Superman syndrome’ and learning to delegate effectively is one of the most important skills for entrepreneurs; it transforms systems from being dependent on you into self-sustaining engines of growth.

These systems turn big-picture goals into daily action, a process at the heart of both my life coaching programmes and business coaching work, ensuring that every habit aligns with your long-term life design.

Case Study 1 – The 8-Figure Entrepreneur

In 2020, a client came to me earning just over £100k in a well-paid job in northern England. On paper, his life looked stable. In reality, he felt trapped, tied to one income stream, one location, and one schedule that wasn’t his own. What he wanted was freedom, his own business, and a better life for his family.

We built his Vision around that:

• Own a profitable business.
• Travel regularly.
• Have full control over his time.

I told him: “Do the minimum at work to keep everyone happy. Put your best energy into building your business.” He committed to this without hesitation.

We used my other framework: Learn → Practice → Master → Become a F*cking Legend, to guide his skill development. He started with a side hustle, taking client calls from his car during lunch breaks and evenings. Over the next 18 months, we refined his offer, identified the most profitable market segments, scaled sales channels, and built robust systems that could run without him.

Two years ago, he quit his job. Today, his company generates £12M a year, eight figures, all built quietly and deliberately. He spends over three months a year abroad with his family and has the freedom his old job could never give him. Vision GPS gave him the clarity to focus, the goals to measure progress, and the systems to sustain growth.

Case Study 2 – The Key Person of Influence

In 2021, another client earning £75k approached me with a different goal. He didn’t just want more income, he wanted to be the go-to expert in his industry, the person people thought of first when they needed a leader in his niche.

His goals were clear:

• Build a personal brand.
• Speak on stage.
• Create a profitable side business.

We mapped his Vision and reverse-engineered the steps to get there. We set SMART goals, built a flexible planning process, and implemented supporting systems, including daily LinkedIn posting, consistent networking, and a content calendar designed to position him as a thought leader.

Within 18 months, he was landing speaking slots at respected industry events. Four years later, he earns £350k, is a recognised authority in his field, speaks on major stages, and mentors emerging talent. His side business, once an experiment, now generates six-figure annual revenue.

Vision GPS gave him more than a plan, it gave him a decision filter. Every opportunity, invitation, and project was measured against his Vision. That discipline created a brand and a career trajectory that will serve him for decades.

Vision as a Decision Filter

One of the biggest powers of Vision GPS is decision speed. When you have clarity, every choice can be filtered through a single question:

Does this move me closer to my Vision?

If the answer is yes – commit fully.
If the answer is no – walk away without guilt.

This filter eliminates hesitation, reduces FOMO, and protects your time from distractions that look good on paper but pull you off course. I’ve had clients turn down lucrative offers because they didn’t align with their Vision, only to land far better opportunities months later because they stayed on track.

In a world overloaded with choices, information, and “urgent” opportunities, this filter keeps you focused on what truly matters. It turns decision-making from a stressful guessing game into a fast, confident process.

As I tell my clients: “Success loves speed, but only when you know where you’re going.”

As I shared in my Yahoo Finance feature, the strength of Vision GPS lies in its adaptability, keeping you committed to your destination while recalculating the route whenever life changes the map.

Vision Evolves – And That’s OK

You don’t need a perfect Vision to begin. Even knowing your “north” is enough to take the first step.

Your Vision will evolve as you grow, gain new experiences, and see more of the path ahead, just like a GPS recalculates when the road changes. That’s not a flaw; it’s proof you’re moving.

One of my clients started with nothing more than “I want more freedom.” A year later, that vague idea had turned into a precise plan: running a consultancy from Portugal six months a year, spending more time with his kids, and scaling a remote team. He could never have designed that in one sitting, it took motion to create clarity.

The biggest trap? Waiting for a perfect plan. Perfection is procrastination in disguise. The key is to start moving, let your Vision sharpen over time, and adjust the route as you go.

Vision GPS 2-Minute Summary

Vision GPS is a four-part framework for designing and living the life you actually want:

1. Vision – Decide your ultimate destination.
2. Goals – Set clear, measurable checkpoints.
3. Planning Process – Build a flexible route that adapts when life changes.
4. Systems – Keep moving daily, even on bad days.

Clarity creates direction.
Direction drives action.
Action creates results, and results create the life you envisioned.

Jake Smolarek on Vision GPS

These are not just quotes; they’re the principles I repeat to clients every week. They’re short enough to remember, but deep enough to change how you think.

When someone says they need more motivation, I remind them:

“Most people think they need more motivation. What they really need is clarity and direction.”

You don’t need a perfect picture of your future before you start. Even a rough outline is enough to move:

“You don’t need a perfect vision to start. You just need to know where ‘north’ is.”

It still surprises me how much detail people put into short events… while ignoring the bigger game:

“Most people plan their wedding or holiday in detail… but never plan their life.”

Vision is not about having everything, it’s about choosing what matters most:

“You can’t have everything, but you can have everything that matters to you.”

And when clients drift into chasing random achievements without a clear north, I tell them:

“Without Vision, your goals are just random tasks.”

Finally, when life throws you a curveball:

“Your destination doesn’t change. Only the route does.”

Intro to FAQ (People Also Ask)

If you’re exploring the Vision GPS framework, you may have questions about how it works, who it’s for, and how fast it delivers results. Below, I’ve answered the most common questions I get from clients and readers. The same questions people often search for online. Think of this as a quick-access guide to understanding and applying Vision GPS in your own life.