The New Year brings a new series on vision. For the next several weeks I will be positing articles with concepts, techniques, and tools that show effective leaders and managers just how vital this topic is. Vision as a topic gets a lot of press but it functions better as a quality than it does as a task. A leader with vision will doubtless be more effective than one who is given a vision statement with which they must comply.
Vision is not all that complicated. It is, really, a statement of faith, non-religious. It is a reasonably well-defined picture of what you believe the future will be like in practical terms. You’re experienced to know that simply defining the vision does not guarantee its arrival. One must do more than “see.” One must act accordingly.
Since the beginning of the year is almost always accompanied by resolutions to be better, do better, and live better, here are four ways you can screw up your life when it comes to vision.
See the vision and do nothing. This may be the most common response. It is essentially laziness. Remember this. Nothing works if you don’t.
Give yourself to the wrong vision. Ok, I said it is a statement of faith, but it is not a statement of fantasy. It must have some basis in reality. To see graphic examples of this, simply check out the audition phases of American Idol which air on American television this month. There’s plenty of both to be seen.
Be a dabbler. I’ve written before about the need to focus. Having no tenacity will not advance your cause. I head up a writer’s group in which there are large numbers of people who want to be writers but only a few who actually want to write. Reaching a vision requires tenacity, the capacity to follow through day after day after day. To focus means to”
Find
One
Cause
U
Support
Fall short. This last one sums up the health club business which will boom this month and be considerably smaller by December. Starting is not so hard. Finishing is more so.
Well, I’ve probably created more questions than I’ve supplied answers and that is by design. In the coming posts, I will address this oh so important subject. 2014 can be our best yet but only if something changes. If you do what you’ve always done you will get what you’ve always got. Let’s don’t. Let’s make this year different than last.
And while you’re plotting new beginnings, why not take a look at my free Mastering Your Time Mini-course. It is just the prescription for setting the focus of your life for this new year. You can subscribe by clicking on the link at the top of the page.
See you Monday.