Right now I have a picture frame sitting on a shelf in my office. Placed within that picture frame is an image of my wife and I sitting down with three of my children. Only ten years ago I had no idea that I would be married to my now wife and certainly didn’t fully understand what it would mean to be the father of three and now four children. Life is fuller than I could have imagined with love and joy and toy cars and stories and plasters and dirty nappies. This picture that I look at almost daily is full of meaning and emotion to me today and depicts my family who exert a huge force in how I live my life.
This visible picture frame in my office allows me to look back and connect that image to my actions, feelings and decisions today. But an invisible internal picture frame (what I like to think of as “Vision”) allows me to look forward and connect that image to my today.
One way I think of vision is as “a mental picture of what could be.”
Vision sees what cannot be seen yet.
When you have vision it has a profound effect on how you live, the actions you take, the feelings you feel, and the decisions you make.
Vision creates Direction
If on my day off work I begin with a vision of spending the day with my family at Ikea shopping for large napkins, and tea lights, eating meatballs and mash potatoes while my kids color pictures in the kids play area. This vision gives me direction. I will take certain actions that will create opportunity for that vision to become a reality. Once we are all in the car I will not get on the road to Limerick because I know that Ikea is in Dublin, the opposite direction.
Vision produces Motivation
I love the story told of man who visited a construction site. A man came upon a construction site where three people were working. He asked the first, “What are you doing?” and the man replied: “I am laying bricks.” He asked the second, “What are you doing?” and the man replied: “I am building a wall.” As he approached the third, he heard him humming a tune as he worked, and asked, “What are you doing?” The man stood, looked up at the sky, and smiled, “I am building a cathedral where generations will worship the living God!”
All other things being equal, which one do you think was motivated to do the best work?
Vision forms Leaders.
As a young teenager I lived as a victim of my peers and circumstances. I was like a feather blown by the wind. I would find myself in situations I was not prepared to be in and would end up doing things I didn’t want to do. I think this is a natural progression for many teenagers and often part of growth. Thankfully, there came a day when I recognized that I didn’t need to live as a victim. I had found my self-worth didn’t need to depend on the opinions of people thinking I am “cool.” I had come into a revelation that I was eternally loved by someone greater. This realization gave me a vision of myself that move me away from living as a victim. I was still a fairly quiet and often introverted guy, but none-the-less I became a leader because I had been empowered to have to ability to say, “No” when I wanted to say “No” and “Yes” when I wanted to say “Yes.” I was able to live intentionally, no longer a victim, but a man with vision.
Questions
In one or two sentences describe what you see that is not yet visible? A few categories to think about could be: Relationships, Spirituality, Health, Education, Financially, Generosity, Creativity, etc.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.
― Albert Einstein
