WATCH WHAT DECIDE YOUR VISION

"Most successful men have not achieved their distinction by having some new talent or opportunity presented to them. They have developed the opportunity that was at hand."-- Bruce Barton 

Why vision matters ? Because the vision guides you on how you want to be. Note that I am not talking about the Academic  Vision and Mission Concepts here. By Vision I simply mean How do you picture your current and future life or let us say how you really want to live ? 

Your vision is depicted by how you currently live, but  remember you can improve your vision. 

We all can be better than how we currently are, but it requires some planning and action. 

Some of things that influence your vision are :

1. How informed you are :  A kid asked what she wants to be when she grows up, she replied she wants to be the president of the World, she insisted she wants to be the president of all countries in the world. Everybody around, laughed because of this. One reason why the kid said what she said is that she was not informed about how the world is governed.

We learn something from this kid, that without being properly informed, we can not have improved vision about life and our organizations. This takes us into thinking deeply on what we read, what we watch and what we listen to. 
Is the information we get relevant to help us improve our lives? Does the information we obtain help us see the big picture of life and the world ? Does the information help us have personal freedom of choosing the direction we want to go? 

Wait , I don’t mean that every information you access should be serious about life, you need to have fun too, However in having some fun, you get to see the picture of life. Having fun helps you see the big picture too, and if you use the lesson well, you will see a way to improve your own picture of life ahead of you. For instance, by seeing that you need to have alot of fun in your life, you can start thinking, how will you get into that ability of enjoying the rest of your life.

How informed you are also improves or retards your competence. You should ask yourself what is your competence, or what competence you can achieve. 

You think your academic qualification is enough ? I encourage you to read Five Ways College/University Qualifications may be bad for you

I can relate the level of information we have to the box we are in, as Simon Black of sovereignman.com explains: "People have a box that they live in, whether it be their country or their neighborhood, and with that worldview, they end up fighting for turf in this little box, fighting over changes that they don’t like.

And in truth, that’s a pretty enslaving battle. If you’re going to fight that battle, you’re going to lose, because things are going to change, there’s no way to prevent it. If they’re not changing in your favour, then that’s just the way it is".

2. What are your contacts: One of the reasons for failure of organizations and projects is argued to be the people involved, and the people are failed by many things including poor or unclear vision. 

In building your vision, the contacts you have- the people you communicate to, the people you associate to, and the people you learn from can have a big impact on how you observe present and the future life. 

While it is good to socialize, it is your own responsibility to check who to socialize with.  In the coming posts we will be discussing how to create sound networks.

3. What is your passion?  Your Knowledge and how you actually perform activities of your passion have a profound influence on your vision in the same way as lack of knowledge and not perfoming what is your passion can have to your vision of life. The same goes to organizations that are run by people with no passion to what they do. The success story of Michael Jordan, famous Basketball player success lies in his love for the game as he is quoted saying: "Even when I’m old and grey, I won’t be able to play it, but I’ll still love the game.”

4. What is your philosophy? Here I mean what values you hold on to life, what guide you or what references you run to when you make your decisions and actions. Do you see yourself as responsible for your life, or you leave all to  fate. What do you see as ethical and unethical behaviour and what motivates or discourages you to do what you do for yourself and others. 

5. What are your existing commitments?  Your current obligations whether at home, at school, or at work have great impact on how you shape your vision and I think the level at which the commitments affect your vision depend on your philosophy of life. Therefore, in assessing your commitments the key guideline you use is your philosophy of life. 

6. How do you act :  The way we respond to challenges, influences from others and on what we believe in has effect on how we create the big picture of our own lives or our organizations.  Do we act responsibly or not , do we foresee consequences of our own actions or not ?. 

Understanding the above SIX points, can help us make our vision more clearer. What we need is a kind of program to help us to stay in control. 

Keep on visiting this blog, as I still have alot to share with you.