The Importance of Vision
“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”
Helen Keller
Vision is the ability to conceive of a positive and transformative future. An effective vision is one that YOU find compelling, one that stirs you to action.
I argue that the only thing that stirs anyone to action is vision. Either avoiding a negative vision (unemployment, poverty, etc) or aspiring towards a positive vision (leadership, love, etc).
So if you don’t feel motivated, the solution is way too easy. You need to develop your vision.
Developing Your Vision
How do you develop your vision? By looking where you’re going (and not fixating on where you are).
Our current circumstances can seem heavy and lull us into a sense of complacency. They can cause us silently resign to this just being the way things are, and cause us to overestimate the effort required to change things for the better.
Our future circumstances are just the opposite — full of potential to experience a transformed life. Limitless and inspiring, the future truly is what we make it.
The First Step: Lock on to a target
“Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been”
Wayne Gretzky
Lock on to what you’re after. If you’re playing hockey, it’s not only the puck, but taking a shot at the goal. If you’re running, lock onto that finish line, and the satisfaction of getting there on back to back runs. If you’re saving for a house, lock on to that feeling of having your own home.
It’s mostly not about the thing you’re targeting, but the emotion you’re targeting that comes with the thing.
The Second Step: Believe it’s possible
Once you feel that feeling, you have a choice. You can believe it’s attainable for you, or you can think it’s out of reach.
Either way, you’re right.
If you chose to believe it is possible, proceed to the final step. Otherwise, break your target down to a smaller goal that you do feel is achievable for you.
The Final Step: Inspired action
This step is basically not resisting or holding yourself back. The action is natural at this point, as you know you’re not working for nothing, but for something that inspires you.
If you ever find yourself unmotivated, remember that we’re all working for a future that inspires us, and take the time to reconnect with the original feeling that inspired you to set out on this path to begin with. Reaffirm that it is possible for you, and then get out of your own way.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
Proverbs 13:12