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Making the Unconscious Conscious, or Why Vision Is Important
Vision is a meaningless term⌠unless we truly understand its importance and value. If people don't fully understand the importance of vision for themselves and others, they will never appreciate someone else's vision, its greatness and prominence.
Someone who has never been exposed to classical music will not appreciate a symphony. For him or her, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata isn't something beautiful but annoying and even depressing.
Personally, it would be difficult to build a strong happy family without a vision created around love, respect, care and mutual support. Otherwise, it is a mere social change with little chance for real happiness.
The same situation can be found in different businesses, social projects and political movements regardless of their size, industry or country. People just nod their heads and pay lip service to a vision without really buying it, regarding it as meaningless talk.
We are in a strange situation where vision is praised or even idolised but often not sufficiently appreciated. Glass half empty or glass half full is only a matter of enthusiasm. What is poured into the glass is what matters most.
What meaning we assign to a given vision defines its importance for personal life and business. Revealing the nature of something previously considered impossible allows us to make it understandable for many, which allows them to participate in the vision's further development. Let's look at why vision is important and how successful leaders use it.
There are at least seven core factors of a vision's importance for business and personal life. Vision provides purpose and defines the future; it gives an answer to that critical âwhyâ, allowing us to break out of a negative reality, and unites people by providing a source of inspiration for how we live our lives.
Defining Purpose
We spend much of our lives justifying our worthiness for having it, how we fulfil the opportunities offered and obligations placed on us and what kind of success stories we can write that are worth sharing. Judging a life's worthiness can truly be done only at the end, after the life is lived. Vision helps craft a plan on how to live that good life.
Vision is a core around which all those stories are written. If it's there then we have something to write and share. If not, life becomes a collection of loose ends, leaving one feeling lost and unfulfilled.
How does vision reflect purpose? How far can we go in life and business without vision? For whom is vision important? I addressed these questions to Marshall Goldsmith:
Marshall Goldsmith is the only twoâtime Thinkers 50 #1 Leadership Thinker in the world. He has been recognised by Thinkers50, Fast Company, INC magazine and Global Gurus as the World's Leading Executive Coach. Marshall is a top authority on leadership and executive coaching. He is, in fact, the inventor of leadership coaching and today helps successful leaders become even more successful. His PayâitâForward initiative turned into the Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coaches global program that helps thousands of leaders achieve new levels of success.
Marshall has written three New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers â Triggers, MOJO and What Got You Here Won't Get You There. The editors of Amazon.com have recognised Triggers and What Got You Here Won't Get You There as being in the Top 100 leadership and success books ever written.
A journey cannot be completed or even correctly planned without vision. As David Viscott said in his book Finding Your Strength in Difficult Times: A Book of Meditations (1993), âThe purpose of life is to discover your gift. The work of life is to develop it. The meaning of life is to give your gift awayâ.
A recipe for an unhappy life is to agree with everything and persuade yourself that nothing needs improvement. This is a sure way to get disconnected and lose oneself for nothing. Being happy and enjoying life requires vision. Thus, by following a vision we can fulfil the micro level â live a happy and satisfying personal life.
To fulfil the macro level, we need to live for others as all great leaders do. Today, vision is even more important as we witness a time of redefinition of leadership and the role of leaders, from being superiors to leaderâservants. A leaderâservant is one who uses vision to serve people beyond their own interests. At this level, vision is needed to define and communicate how to help many people make their lives fulfilling and meaningful.
Answering âWhyâ
The times of hunting to survive are long gone. We evolved as humans to a much higher level by asking a simple question â why? In this sense, the highest form of questioning is asking the âwhyâ about oneself and the purpose of existence. This threeâletter word has the ultimate power over the way we see ourselves and the world around us. âWhyâ is a question caused by our curiosity as to how we can do something better and finding a compelling reasoning for changing ourselves.
Vision points to the most fulfilling answer to that personal âwhyâ. I discussed this point with Garry Ridge, who is excellent at moving boundaries and finding answers to difficult problems by asking âwhy?â Garry Ridge is the Chairman and CEO of WDâ40 Company, which is a San Diego, Californiaâbased manufacturer of household and multiâuse products, including its signature brand, WDâ40, which is sold in 176 countries. You probably have one of those WDâ40 cans in your garage or under a kitchen sink. Don't forget that all Formulaâ1 and other racing car teams use WDâ40 for solving problems on a daily basis as well in the middle of a race. The company's success is crystallised in the company's vision statement âThe success of the WDâ40 Company is people just like you, whether you're a tribe member, business partner, investor or customerâ.
