Vision is more than sight

Part of my typical morning time includes 15-20 minutes reading scriptures, split between different books including the Old and New Testaments. God has imparted great wisdom but most of us tend to overlook it, overthink it, or think it's religious in nature. One of those gems of wisdom is found in Proverbs chapter 29 verse 18.

"Where there is no vision, the people perish."

For most people, vision is equivalent to sight. But it's much more than that.

In a religious viewpoint, a vision could be equivalent to a waking dream. There are many prophets who had visions that provided guidance for them and those who follow.

In a business perspective, executives might have a vision of where they see the company at the end of a period of time. The good executives then work to get their associates, employees, staff, etc. to "buy into" the vision to make it a reality.

With self-improvement, vision is equally important. And every person I've listened to or read in the self-improvement industry stresses the importance of vision, though they may use different words or phrases.

In Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, one of those habits is "Begin with the End in Mind."

Price Pritchett's book You2 (You-squared) he has a chapter titled Focus on the Ends rather than the means.

Tony Robbins, Bob Proctor, and many others teach the same thing.

We need to know where it is we want to be.

We need to know our destination.

We need to know what it is we want.

We need to identify our desired outcome.

The challenge is most people have a dream of what they think they'd like, but it's actually more of a wish. Few really make the dream a vision in their mind, but that is an essential, a vital, step to creating a transforming vision.

We must visualize a clear image of what it is we want to accomplish, what our desired outcome or destination is. 

We need to connect with that vision on an emotional level, feeling what it's like to be, to have arrived, to have that outcome real.

Our challenge, and I'm no exception, is most of us get hung up on the "how to" get to that destination. We want to know the entire route to get from where we are to where we want to be.

But, we need to turn that around and think from the destination side. It seems a little backward, but the reality we need to accept is that we most likely can't get to where we want to be by doing what what we're doing. 

For most of us what we want is on a completely higher plane than where we currently are, so it actually is perfectly logical and reasonable to accept that we cannot get to that other plane by continuing on the one we're on. It may be difficult, if not impossible, to see the complete path from where we are to where we want to go.

Focusing on the end vision can open our mind to new options, paths that will help lift us up. But don't expect to have the entire path, with all the steps, laid open before you. Most likely we need to trust that the step will take us closer to our vision and then next step will soon be revealed. And because the whole path is usually not clear, it can be difficult when some ambiguity or even some chaos enters into our life. We hesitate. We freeze. We fail to act.

And that is where the next challenge is: We must take decisive action. Even if when we can't see beyond that action, or how it will help us reach the goal, we need to take action. 

We may have faith, but without works associated with our faith, our faith is dead. Faith without works will not get us to our destination.

God loves action.

I've heard Tony frequently share what he learned from his mentors: Where focus goes, energy flows.

Make the vision real in your mind. Breathe life into it using your imagination. Build in your mind the sights, feelings, smells, sounds, tastes, etc. that are associated with the vision, the end that we want.

Focus on the vision. Make it more real. 

Remember, Fred Alan Wolf described a quantum leap is an "explosive jump".  When we jump we're not worried about what's happening in the middle. Our focus is supposed to be on where we expect to land.