Guest blogger Joolz Lewis “the corporate hippy” discusses vision:
“Pain pushes… Vision pulls”
Whether you’re stuck in a job you don’t enjoy and dreaming of a ‘better way’, you’re running a successful and established business, or you’re just starting out on your own; having a vision is absolutely necessary to keep you going in those ‘dark nights of the soul’. Why? Because there are two forces that will both work to keep you moving in the direction of your ‘deepest intent’ – your intent to use your work as a platform from which to show up and serve, and to make a difference. One of those forces is quite simply ‘pain’. The pain of not being fulfilled, of knowing that there’s something ‘more’, of feeling like your soul is like a bird trapped in its cage, aching to break free and express its true purpose. The pain of uncertainty, of anxiety re. decision making and getting new business. Pain pushes you forward.
At the other end of the spectrum, there’s the vision. Vision is what pulls you forward – it inspires you, it motivates you, it energises you, and it’s what drives you to never give up on the dream. Vision is a dream turned into possibility. Pain pushes… vision pulls.
The Paradox
Enter the paradox. How to have a vision that is ‘real’, and clear, without really knowing what it’s going to look like? How is it possible to commit to a vision, at the same time as surrender the detail of how it might look? And should a vision be achievable and realistic, or should it be grand and inspiring in its audacity?
What Vision Is
Firstly, vision is about envisaging what ‘different’ might look like. Many people are nervous of having a ‘big’ vision; for fear that it might paralyse them. I was one of those. My vision has always been for a world wherein people work in business from a place of purpose and passion, for mutual win-win-win (employee-customer-planet). At first, the vision was barely a whisper. I couldn’t even articulate it, it seemed so huge, so much bigger than me, I didn’t dare speak it. But that’s the point of vision – in order to be inspiring, a vision has to involve other people, it has to extend beyond our limited selves, our current way of being. So by default, it’s impossible to know exactly what our vision will look like when realised. Having a vision is different to knowing what it will look like.
Once you have a vision, you can more easily identify what your purpose is in relation to it. It provides a framework for you to define a business mission, from which achievable and realistic goals can be set.
How you Relate to It
Now for the second part – how do you move towards the vision, without a clear idea of what it will look like? By necessity, if your vision is ‘bigger than you’, it’ll be difficult to know exactly what it will look like, or what your life will look like in relation to it. So there are two parts to this paradox.
1) Imagine your vision. You can’t ‘know’ what it will look like, but you can imagine it. I highly recommend doing a collage exercise, to allow you to imagine what it might look like to you. Make a ritual out of it – draw, cut up magazines, paint it. Do visualisation exercises. Write and use affirmations starting with ‘I contribute directly to a world in which [vision]’. Find a piece of music that resonates with the spirit of your vision. Feel it – what does your vision feel like in your body? What are the emotions you associate with this vision?
2) AND, focus on the here and now. What small step(s) can you take – right now – that will move you in the direction of your vision? Have you got realistic goals that you can achieve relatively quickly so you can make progress and not lose motivation along the way? Listen to your inner guidance and intuition on a daily or minimum weekly basis, and pay attention to those subtle ‘nudges’ you get – the ideas that come to you in the middle of the night, on a train home from work, or while walking on the beach. Follow them up. Pay attention to how you feel while performing tasks or activities that support your vision – if you are energised, motivated, enthused and passionate about what you’re doing then you’re on the right track.
Possibility Consciousness
The most important piece of this paradox is that both having a vision, and moving towards it, means living in ‘possibility consciousness’. You can imagine what it might look like, and surrender the ‘having to know’. On a daily basis you can stay open and available to possibility, to the daily evidence that your vision is revealing itself – perhaps not in its entirety, but glimpses that show you that you’re on the right track, that you are in fact making a difference, that you are living your purpose.
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