Regaining A Sense of Vision in Your Life

What are you doing today? Why? What is the purpose of your day? What do you hope to accomplish out of life and how is this day contributing to that agenda?

Vision is a powerful motivator in our lives. It drives us to act. It gives us a sense of camaraderie with the people who share our vision. It gives us a feeling of purpose, adding meaning to our lives.

If you think about the job, relationship, or hobby you are currently engaged in, it likely started from a specific vision. You wanted to work to pay the bills or fall in love to get married. Really, you wanted to do something meaningful with your day and to have someone to love and be loved by.

We always start with a vision. We do not waste our time with something unless we have a certain hope or expectation for how it will benefit us. As our endeavor continues, the vision we started with can get lost in the shuffle, confused and diluted, or it can fade away entirely.

Losing Vision

Not all of our visions are good. In fact, this is probably the number one reason we lose a sense of vision. It is because we wanted validation or money or something else superficial that does not truly satisfy. We’ve believed a lie or settled for a temporary fix. Often the loss of vision exposes the imperfection of our vision.

Even if our vision was (is?) perfectly healthy, we can lose it easily. This is because things do not stay in the honeymoon phase forever. When circumstances get tough, we often lose sight of where we were going because the current situation seems so pressing. This can be a self-fulfilling prophecy and we can find ourselves spending the rest of our days putting out fires and forgetting about vision altogether.

Rescuing Vision

No matter why we lost our sense of vision in the first place, it is available for resuscitation.

Exploring vision takes time. When fires are burning and the To-Do List for the day is long and overwhelming, we often just feel as if “we don’t have the time” to sit and contemplate vision. It seems a luxury.

But the only thing more time-consuming than considering your vision is operating without one. You will waste more time in the long run by continuing to chase your tail.

When we think of vision, we often think of stuffy and obligatory mission statements. We think of poor goals and heads in the clouds. We might give it lip service on one company retreat a year, but we have real things to do day in and day out.

All you really need to revitalize your vision is a commitment to do so. To really believe and internalize the importance of vision casting for your personal and professional life.

You’ll be lost without it. And it is so easy to lose. But the same reality works in the opposite direction – if you can find your vision and keep it at the forefront, it will unlock levels of productivity and effectiveness that are otherwise elusive. It won’t help you avoid challenges but it will remind you why the challenges are worth enduring.