The name’s McIntosh, Ewan McIntosh.

From a young age I wanted to be a spy. I even got as far as the qualifying test to join the ranks of MI5, and lived in hope that maybe I’d get a shoulder tap on the ninth floor of David Hume Tower at Edinburgh University. I got very close to a career in the Army, but met a girl who reassured me it’d be over if I continued (she’s now my wife).

Most of us think of the glamour of spies, flying around to exotic places and meeting interesting people. And, yes: I can lay claim to celebrating my birthday yesterday on a delightful flight to Bangkok. But the airline lounge is as close to McIntosh, Ewan McIntosh as I get.

The vision I had of my life 26 years ago was just too far ahead to work out in practice. One step at a time… When you’re not 21 any more, you understand that.

Last week, producer legend Barbara Broccoli announced that after 62 years she was handing over her family’s creative control of the James Bond 007 film franchise to Amazon.

It made me wonder whether Bond would now show up at villains’ lairs, ring the doorbell, and leave his Walter PPK in the bin to be found later.

Or maybe he’ll have to move in stealth while wearing a high visibility jacket.

Perhaps he’ll get his gadgets from Prime instead of Q.

Who knows.

All good things come to and end.

It’s worth remembering that when you’re designing your strategy, or your next big idea, or lay out those grand ambitions for your personal life.

So many Boards adorn their vision and objectives with adjectives that add hot air and a frothy sense of excitement. They want to create language that lives beyond them. I’ve heard some kids say that the Director must want a statue outside the school… So how do you avoid that?

First, timing: when you create a vision and the strategy to achieve it, it’s creating change for now. Not generations away. Take a look at Saudi’s Vision 2030. It started in 2016, with a goal nothing short of transforming the country economically and socially. But there’s a deadline: 2030. And the result is the country’s young people, in particular, have seized the moment. The change is palpable, and incredibly exciting.

Second, achievability: The vision should be achievable. The strategy to get there should feel a stretch but doable. Sometimes that stretch might not sound remarkable. But achieving it will be.

Third, genuine choices: too much school strategy is laden with trueisms - “let’s work hard on all this stuff that frankly any half-decent school should be doing as ‘normal’”. If you have a vision, it should pinpoint at least one thing (and ideally just one thing) that will be different and aspirational. You know if it’s a proper choice if the opposite choice is equally valid an option but just not for you.

When I find myself getting ahead of myself, too precious about an idea, or writing a vision that could potentially be too long term and maybe a bit ‘tosh’, I remind myself of this:

My great grandchildren will have no idea who I was, nor the ideas I came up with. The ideas I create today should make an impact, today**. That’s good enough. It might even be the best thing any of us can do.**

So what’s your nearly-now vision?