You Can Seize Only What You Can See (Part 2)
“Can you see it?”
I was 10 years old and in front of me was a stack of wood and materials that the lumber truck had just dropped off. Next to the wood was a giant rectangular hole in the ground. It was about 4 feet deep and ran perhaps 100 feet long and 60 feet wide. Someday it would hold a concrete foundation, but right now it was nothing more than a giant mud puddle.
“Yeah, dad. I see it. There’s a bunch of wood and a hole in the ground.” I pointed at them as I spoke.
He laughed at my response. “Can you see the house there? Can you see the picture window right there in front? The bushes over there? The garage over there?”
I was only 10 years old. I had no idea what he was talking about. At my young age, I didn’t have the foresight to see what hard work applied to those materials could produce. I couldn’t see the potential for that work site but soon I would come to learn what he was talking about.
A few months later that small lot sported a new building on it. My father’s experiences in carpentry allowed him the ability to see that building before it actually existed. He visualized the final product and it was his vision that fueled him and his crew toward its completion.
Basic Characteristics of a Leader’s Vision
- Vision Starts Inside You. Although I hope to inspire and excite you about building and impacting your community, I can’t create a vision for you. I can’t lay out the direction that you should go or the goals that you should have. Your vision needs to start with you. It needs to be your dream.
- Vision Draws From Your Experiences. My father was able to visualize his final project so easily because he had seen it happen before starting this project. Either he had built houses before that or he had seen it done. Either way, he had the experience necessary to project in his mind what could be and what it would take to make it a reality. Take a few minutes and think about the great things that you’ve seen or experienced. What have you seen that you would like to accomplish?
- Vision Inspires Those Around You. One of the most powerful things about vision isn’t just the impact that it has on us, but the impact that it has on those who we interact with. When you empower your followers with the ability to see your vision, they will rally around you. People inherently love to help. If you can effectively get them to see your vision then you can get them to be a part of it.
- Vision Fuels & Directs You. Vision is the compass to a great leader. Without vision you will wander in circles hoping to randomly win the lottery or inherit a fortune. With a vision, you are able to set goals, prioritize, move forward toward great success. Vision inspires and enables you.
Steps to Building Your Own Vision
- Take an Honest Look at Your Abilities. When you’re starting out, you need to set dreams and goals that you honestly believe you can accomplish. If something is outside of your scope then you either need to adjust the vision or make plans for continued self-improvement like going back to school or learning a new skill.
- Stay True to Your Passions. What is it that makes you truly happy? What makes you sad? What is it that really makes you smile? Figure these things out and develop a vision catered to who you are and what you want out of life. You don’t have to follow after anyone else. You have to find out what really makes you happy.
- Write it Down. Click through to the next article in your daily reading routine and you’ll never gain the powerful advantage of developing a vision. Take the time right now to sketch your ideas on a piece of paper. This will help you to visualize your dreams even more and it will help you to commit yourself to your vision.
Group Reflection
What is your vision? What are your passions? What do you dream about? What advice would you give to those around you about their visions?
Let’s take the blinders off of our eyes and try to see what great things we can accomplish.
Derek Jensen
My vision is to own a site / community that is strong and make a living from running it and influencing or having an impact on so many people.
My passions are the web, being a leader, always thinking about what should be done, and gaining new friends. My other passions are internet video shows, reading books, backpacking, and driving automobiles.
I always have a dream that I am in my own office with my company logo on the outside of it and I have a loving family.
My advice would be that I hope your vision is actually your vision and not one that is influenced solely by others. Sure the people you look up to can drive your vision but yours need to be unique to yourself.
Nicholas Cardot
Those are vivid and specific dreams that you have and I think that visualize them will drastically help you to achieve them. But remember that it’s also about taking as many people along with you. What are your plans to achieve that success and how can you do it in such a way as to help as many people as possible as you move onward and upward.
mark
That is a great story Nick – it reminds me of when I was a kid talking to my dad about building an addition onto our house.
The vision that I think you are talking about is an ability to take an idea and see it through to its realization. It is not easy, though there are a ton of people who do this in small and in big ways every day. My favorite things you wrote here are:
“Vision Inspires Those Around You” – without this, you ‘team’ will not work hard. You want them to want what you want. That is a lot of want… Anyway, if you can not inspire people, your project will be dead in the water.
“Write it Down” – this one is near and dear to my heart. I used to tell new team members that they should write down anything that would be helpful later. This is extraordinarily important, even for those of us with fairly good memories.
One other thing – You mentioned school. IMHO, going to school is great for building skills. Too often you hear of people going to school so they can get a job. There is, of course, nothing wrong with viewing your world that way. But, if your intention is to become a leader, then every experience you have should be slanted in some way to achieving your goal. School is a place where you learn something. How you choose to use that knowledge is a decision that you make.
Bruce Teague
The weakest pen is stronger than the strongest memory.
Writing it down not only help me to remember the ideas swirling around in my head, but it helps me focus it into an action plan.
Onibalusi Bamidele
Hi Nicholas,
This post greatly Inspires me. Having a vision is very critical to being a successful leader. I am also happy with the steps you outlined.
Thanks a lot for the great post,
-Onibalusi
Jasmine Henry
My advice is to embrace the dreams and ideas that we have and don’t forget about them just because they seem weird or unusual to everyone else. I was watching American Idol and a contestant (I think it was Aaron Kelley) said that you shouldn’t let go of your dreams, I thought ‘ well why aren’t there more people following their ideas?’.
We often forget about the things that we want in the long run and get distracted but if we all follow our dreams and don’t stop until we achieve them, I can guarantee that we’d all be a lot happier!
Tom
Being a changeable twenty-something means that ‘finding out what really makes you happy’ is a little more complicated than I first thought.
John Paul Aguiar
See it, write it down, think it thru, then ACT ON IT!
Dreaming with no action will stay a dream.
Great post for some Monday morning motivation.
Nadia - Fit4Sure
Hi Nic. Nicely written as I can imagine you, standing there with your father trying to teach you vision. And he did a great job: not only do you remember what he told you that day, but obviously you can now transmit your vision.
It inspires me to share my own vision on my blog. My vision is to make this world a little more healthy. Consequently, it involves other people and I need to inspire them.
I’ll organize my thoughts and let you know what came out.
Nicholas Cardot
That sounds great. I think that sometimes we really lose sight of what our visions are and it’s really nice to be reminded with simple stories like this one from my childhood. Don’t lose sight of your vision to influence people’s health and lifestyles. People desperately need to be taking care of themselves and you could end up being the driving influence for a community of people who decide to dig in and make a difference. I say that you should go after it with everything that you are and I’m looking forward to what you come up with.