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| Business Development |
 Vision: The Essential Ingredient - Part 1By Stephen Joyce of Zenergy PD Everyone wishes to live a meaningful, purposeful life. Amongst the growing complexity and ‘blur’ of present age, it is so easy for us to lose track of why we are alive. We become stuck in ‘response mode’ and forget what it’s all for. Having a vision provides perspective and helps us to stay in touch with the ‘why.’ This article is the first of three on the topic of vision. In this series we will discuss the important part vision plays in all lives of worth and value. We will also address the important question of how to bring a sense of vision into our own lives. Gandhi’s vision of India in 1919 provided 800 million inhabitants of a British colony a specific direction. The vision he gave birth to (self-rule for India) helped those people to put their efforts in the same direction. His vision of India enabled people with many reasons for not playing as a team, to co-operate for a higher cause. The rest, is history. No one remembers the British politicians who opposed Gandhi - their vision for India was overshadowed by that of a small, physically frail lawyer, who advocated non-violent protest. Most writers and researchers on the topic agree that the rate of change in our society is accelerating. As society becomes faster, more furious, and increasingly complex, our need for connection increases proportionally. Vision provides that vital link between who we are and what we are striving for, individually and as a community, country and society. Without a sense of vision, we can lose sight of what is important to us as human beings. Under stress we can switch to micro-management of our own professional lives, our diets, our décor, our possessions, and our physical appearance. In doing so, it becomes easy to abandon any visions we might have for our family, community, society, country, or world we live in. It would have been so easy to write this article about how having a vision for our business is good for the ‘bottom line,’ but I don’t believe we can afford such a limited definition of the concept of VISION. Solely having a vision of a million dollar company, while doing business with a community which is falling apart, is short-sighted. More and more people within organizations are realizing that a business with vision depends on a community with vision. For that matter, a community depends on a country with vision. That country of course depends on a world with vision. Our self-esteem benefits greatly when we become aligned with a ‘great’ vision. Abraham Maslow observed that “if you take into yourself something important from the world, then you yourself become important thereby.” Nietzsche said that we can survive almost any ‘how’ if we have a ‘why.’ Vision provides the why. Along with the reason to do something, it enables us to reach further, to stretch and discover previously untapped potential, within ourselves and within humanity as a whole. The magnitude of the vision will directly affect the heights to which we will be enabled to soar. Although an exceptional human being, Gandhi’s contribution is not unique in the history of humanity. Many people have made significant contributions to the human race through sharing their vision. Vision does many things for us. It gives us direction. It helps us to focus our energies. It provides a place for people to meet and align their efforts. Vision enables us to co-operate for a ‘higher good.’ We can’t all be visionaries in the way Gandhi was, but we can all have a vision, share a vision, or live our lives according to a vision. Many people get to the top of their ladder, only to find it resting against the wrong wall. This is how Joseph Campbell once described a very common phenomena as humanities searches for a meaningful purpose (or vision). Adopting a vision for our own life is one of the most important things we can do, both for ourselves and for those we share this earth with. Aligning ourselves with a vision requires self-knowledge. Self-exploration helps us to find out more about who we are, what we value in life, and what our hopes are - for our own future and that of our descendants. The next article in this series will address the question of how to find a worthwhile vision through self-exploration. After all... “...Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all.” (Helen Keller) Stephen runs Zenergy PD - a training organization devoted to helping people tap into their ‘peak potential’. He is a certified NLP Trainer & Consultant. Stephen may be reached at 912.5210 or email: change@zenergypd.com |