What Vision Looks Like

Nolen Rollins, in his popular GPS Life Journey curriculum says, “Your vision is usually a series of descriptive (specific and clear) bullet points or statements, rather than one long narrative.”  Rollins uses the example of someone who felt called to mentor troubled teenage boys, and describes their vision bullet points like this:

• I envision being trained on how to mentor young men.
• I envision building strong, healthy relationships with troubled teenage boys.
• I envision a multiplying effect as many of these boys will mentor others in the future.

How to Practice Vision

When I coach business people and individuals on the importance of vision, I tell them to start their visionary thoughts with the words “I see…”  “I see…” statements are followed by vision thoughts that are:

• Intense – vision invokes strong feelings.
• Personal – vision is unique to the one envisioning.
• Vivid – vision often takes on the properties of a mental picture.
• Passionate – vision is something that we must do. 

Stepping back and contemplating vision has birthed businesses, started great philanthropic works and helped people like you and I understand our own personal life mission. Jonathan Swift wrote “Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.”  I have found this process to be nothing short of POWERFUL!

Beginning to Dream

Michael Hyatt wrote an article describing his journey of taking a struggling company from an “ash heap” to a place of success.  He acknowledges his natural bent to think too small. He says, “Through the years, I had learned that if you think about strategy (the “how”) too early, it will actually inhibit your vision (the “what”) and block you from thinking as big as you need to think.”… “The problem is that people get stuck on the how. They don’t see how they could accomplish more, so they throttle back their vision, convinced that they must be “realistic.”  Taking Hyatt’s advice, to dream big we need to discipline ourselves to focus more on the “what” instead of the “how.”  The level of discipline to do so varies from person to person depending on their personality type.  As an example, I have to be very disciplined because I am a strategic thinker. I have to resist the temptation to jump prematurely to strategy.  People with personalities different from mine find it easier to focus on the “what” and avoid jumping to the “how.”