Vision: It can still help!

In today's over-demanding fast paced life we all have felt overwhelmed by the responsibility? If not, you are probably still in elementary school or you are in college on a full-ride scholarship. As for the rest of us, the demand doesn't seem to stop.  The world we live in now expects us all to cover the 24 hour shift. Unfortunately, I don't think that demand is changing anytime soon. By establishing a clear vision for yourself, your family, and your organization, you can help prioritize and clarify the scrambled demands around us and perhaps bring back an integrated sense of self that we prefer to exist in.



Each semester that I teach, I ask my class to spend some time envisioning what they believe their ideal life would be in 10 or 20 years. I encourage them to go beyond the obvious such as job, house, fame and fortune, etc. I'm looking for them to fill in the details in regards to the types of relationships they want to have and how their core values influence the time they spend or invest. In doing so, they can begin to re-assess the path that their life is going and whether or not there needs to be change. I had one particular student tell me that she has been expected to be a dentist her whole academic life since her family practices dentistry and it is a supposedly "good stable job." Yikes! Now I'm not at all putting down the stable job statement. Heaven knows that in today's economy there are a great deal of people that would love to have had a stable job to ride through this crazy storm, but when she told me with tears welling up that her real passion was instead to be a teacher so that she could work with the youth, I could sense that her vision was in crisis. She was a good student and well attentive, yet lacked a passion for school. For her, it was a grind that she just had to chug through until she entered into the life sentence of being in a job that didn't fit with her core vision.


If you have a clear vision that you and those involved with it can truly buy into, it will in fact make you more efficient with your time and resources while limiting the conflict that always comes with human interaction. While vision casting is hardly a new concept, it is one that we may have shelved since our lives are so mucked up with drama that we don't have time to do it. This is when you know that vision casting is exactly what we need to do. Setting a clear vision will begin to make the main thing the main thing so that the essentials of life which we value can be manifested and passed on. Otherwise, we will just keep grinding along in frustration, occasionally taking stock of our lives in relation to the magazine tag lines that we see at the grocery store check out counter.


When you vision cast, you help yourself and those around you...


Prioritize - Pop up ads, school fundraisers, over-filled in-boxes, and a catalog of other so-called "Urgent and Must" to do's are overloading us.  None us want to miss out, nor do we want our families or organizations to miss, but the reality is by over-loading our schedules we can still be missing out. Perhaps, the best thing to do for our children is to spend time walking and talking with them instead of taking them to that next practice in an effort to give them the extra lessons that we didn't have. A vision that takes into account clear core values will begin to prioritize your day.


Responsibly Delegate and Collaborate - Whether you believe it or not, there are others that are depending on you to help them succeed. If you set a clear vision for where you want to go and the core values that you want to hold on to while getting there, you then free them up to work and create exponentially in line with that vision.


Limit Conflict - Believe it or not, most of us out there still can't read minds. Instead of harboring frustration and perceived opinions of what the other is thinking, go back to the vision. When you and your organization encounter the guaranteed conflict that comes with life, the agreed upon vision can act as a moderator. When conflict arises, so does emotion.  Emotion is the flavor of life, but can disrupt rational dialogue to the point that someone in the disagreement goes nuclear instead of being constructive. What vision did you decide upon when everyone was calm and stable? Go back to it as a rutter for your next move.


Make progress - Like any travel plan, if you don't know your destination then you can't measure whether or not you are making progress. The sense of progress has been linked to a person's over-all satisfaction when it comes to the social and work realm.


Like I mentioned earlier, vision casting is hardly a new idea, but its value is worthless if we don't pause from our fast pace and do it. No matter what stage of life you are in, the fact is that you are still in the game. To help make this strategic step a reality, here is a simple outline process of how to vision plan. Life is happening right now! A clear vision can help us all to live it.

Win Today!

Victor