Over the last few posts, we have looked at a number of benefits that result from having a clear vision: passion, motivation, and direction… to name a few. Let’s wrap up this series with this thought.

People with vision have a strong sense of purpose!

Soon after the completion of Disney World someone said, “Isn’t it too bad that Walt Disney didn’t live to see this!” Mike Vance, creative director of Disney Studios, replied, “He did see it – that’s why it’s here.”

Your dream gives you a reason for getting up and showing up. It translates into purpose. If you don’t get up and show up, something important won’t be accomplished! Suddenly, you matter… You matter a lot! Your life has a deep sense of meaning. Without you, what could be – what should be – won’t be!

Many people suffer from poor self-esteem. They don’t believe that they have much to offer, that their life counts for anything significant. But people with a dream know that they matter! Their life is part of a much bigger story! And they have a key part to play in the unfolding of that tale!

A dream makes you an important link between your current reality and the future. That gives your life purpose, meaning. And purpose provides the MOMENTUM to move you through the obstacles that would otherwise slow you down and trip you up.

What is life like with purpose? It is one of the greatest feelings in the world, perhaps best felt the moment you discover and commit to it. No longer “lost at sea” and being thrown here and there, you now have a strong anchor that enables you to withstand the storms of life.

It is such an empowering feeling to have purpose. You feel truly “alive” in every sense of the word. Your days become much brighter. There’s a glimmer in your eye and a bounce in your step. Problems and obstacles become relative as you put them in proper perspective. You become satisfied with the decisions you make in your life. All your actions and thoughts begin to revolve around your purpose and life as you know it begins to “shape” and “mold” itself according to it.

Study the lives of successful men and women from the beginning of history and you will always find, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that having purpose in their lives played a central role in their success. Their purpose was something much greater than themselves and they genuinely loved pursuing it.

Whatever your purpose is, when you find it, own it – make it your own. Watch as your life slowly sculpts around it, delivering the necessary resources to aid in your pursuit of it. Live life on purpose!

Eric R. Deschamps – Business Coach, Ottawa

A dream will simplify your decision making. Anything that moves you toward the realization of the dream gets a green light. Everything else is approached with caution.

A dream sets a direction for your life. It serves as a road map. And it is accompanied by clearly articulated goals. To arrive at your destination, it’s crucial to understand where you are, what obstacles you are facing, and what strategies you will use to overcome them.

Imagine leaving Ottawa with instructions to go to Medicine Hat. Obviously, it would be easier to accomplish this with a map (or a GPS). Without a map, the trip would be very frustrating, and require much more time and effort. Dreams and goals work the same way. They allow you to identify where you are and how to get from one point to the other.

Identifying goals and priorities is vital to achieving success. Most people have been asked to define their goals at some point — either in school or at work or as part of a self-improvement program. But many get flustered when the topic of goals comes up.

Fear of setting goals too high, fear of commitment, and not knowing what course to chart are just a few reasons people shudder at the concept of goals. Yet goals remain an important part of the dream process, and recording them is crucial. Consider the following.

A graduating class was surveyed about goals:

• Only 3% of them had goals and wrote them down.
• 10% had goals, but didn’t have them written down.
• The rest – 87% – had no goals whatsoever. They drifted through life without any definite direction.

When surveyed again 25 years later, the 3% who had goals and plans that were written down had accomplished from 50 to 100 times more than the other two groups put together!

Reduce your plan to writing. The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire.    Napoleon Hill

Goals need to be recorded and consulted regularly. A map will be of little help if it is never taken out of the glove box. You need to revisit your goals on a consistent basis. If you’re off course, you can re-evaluate and make adjustments.

Can you see it? A dream will simplify your decision making. Anything that moves you toward the realization of the dream gets a green light. Everything else is approached with caution. Setting clear priorities becomes so much easier. Your dream will bring what’s most important to the surface of your schedule and lifestyle. With a clear “yes” burning in your heart, you know what to say “no” to. Good things don’t end up taking the place of the best things.

On the other hand, people without a dream are easily distracted. They have a tendency to drift from one thing to another. As a result, they often make foolish decisions, decisions that rob them of what they really want. People without direction are busy pursuing many different things, but rarely are they successful. Without a clear vision, people will either:

• Have no direction and fall into maintenance mode;
• Go in multiple directions, spreading themselves so thin that they accomplish little or nothing of lasting value;
• Go in the wrong direction.

Vision protects you from distractions. It serves as your compass and guide. It helps you move purposefully in the right direction. People with a dream have direction. What about you? Are you moving in a clear direction, or just going through the motions?

Eric R. Deschamps – Business Coach, Ottawa

So far in our vision series, we have looked at the importance of a vision and the passion that fuels it. Today, let’s take a closer look at the motivating power of a dream.

There is nothing more lifeless in the world than an unmotivated person without a dream. A dream motivates you. The reality is, however, that motivation can come in many forms.

Late one night, a man had gone to a party and had too much to drink, so he decided it would be best to walk home. He found a shortcut through a poorly lit cemetery and, in the darkness, stumbled into an open grave. He tried to climb out but the walls were too slippery. Again and again he fell back into the grave. Finally, in exhaustion, he settled in a corner to wait for morning and help to arrive.

A few minutes later, another man in the same condition took the same shortcut through the cemetery and fell victim to the same grave. He, too, tried desperately to climb and claw his way out, and was equally unsuccessful. As he was about to give up in hopeless resignation, he heard a voice from the darkness of the grave: “You may as well give up. You’ll never get out of here.” But he did!

Like in this humorous story, fear can be a motivator. But a clearly-defined dream provides much greater motivation. People with vision are motivated individuals! When you have a dream, the mundane begins to matter. The day-to-day details, chores, and routines of life are suddenly filled with purpose.

Vision gives significance to the otherwise meaningless details of our lives.

In 1997, the city of Winnipeg experienced “The Flood of the Century.” The events of that spring led to over $500 million worth of damage in Manitoba. The result of abundant snowfall and unusually extreme temperatures, it was the worst flood in over 100 years!

Many of us can still remember the images of devastation as the Red River kept rising and forced the evacuation of over 50,000 residents in the community of Grand Forks. The Canadian military was dispatched to help with the crisis. I still remember the news footage of residents, city workers, and soldiers filling bags with dirt and creating sandbag dikes in an attempt to contain the surging river.

I can’t imagine a more meaningless task than filling bags with dirt. There’s nothing glamorous or fulfilling about it. But saving a city is another thing altogether. Building a dike to save lives gives meaning to the chore of filling bags with dirt. It’s the same with vision.

Too many times the routines of life begin to feel like filling bags with dirt. But take those same routines, those same responsibilities, and view them through the lens of your dream and everything looks different. Vision brings your world into focus. Vision brings order to chaos. A clear vision enables you to see everything differently. Your dream will motivate you, even in the most routine of activities.

Are there routines in your life that feel like filling bags of dirt? Think of ways that you could revitalize those activities by tying them into your dreams and goals. Where do they fit in the big picture?

Eric R. Deschamps – Business Coach, Ottawa

In my last post – The Importance of Vision – I wrote about the value of having a dream. A clear vision enhances one’s life exponentially. That cannot be understated. A business owner with a clear sense of direction for his/her personal and professional life will achieve far more than the owner who is merely putting in his time.

For the next few posts, I want to focus my attention (and yours) on some of the many benefits of possessing a compelling vision.

Let’s start with PASSION. People with a dream are PASSIONATE. Why? Because vision stirs up emotion. There is no such thing as an emotionless dream. This is the feeling aspect of a dream. It stirs us to the core of our being.

You may have experienced this before. Have you ever shared your dream with someone? As you were talking, maybe your palms got sweaty, or the pitch in your voice rose, or the pace of your speech increased. In other words, you got emotional! You became passionate! A dream should move you emotionally! It should stir up passion in you!

The emotions associated with being there (wherever there is) are enough to motivate you through the drudgery of getting there.

In other words, when you imagine what life would be like once your dream is realized, you become passionate about it. This gives life to even the most boring and meaningless task or routine. The feelings attached to your future reality are brought into your present circumstances, fuelling your day-to-day progress toward the goal.

Most Canadians face a crisis of mediocrity. Many have become sick with maintenance mode malaria. Many people are content with barely getting by. It’s just business as usual, many simply going through the motions. But vision is always accompanied by strong emotion. And the clearer the vision, the stronger the emotion.

Where there is vision, there is always passion.

Vision and passion work hand in hand. While vision is a seeing word that involves what you see in your mind, passion is a feeling word that involves your emotions – what you feel in your heart. Passionate people are those who feel strongly about something. The “something” in this context is the vision, the dream. A compelling, clear vision fuels passion.

The importance of getting your emotions involved in this process cannot be understated. Think about the power of your feelings for a moment. If you allow your emotions to dictate your every decision, you may find yourself in trouble! However, if you can channel your emotions properly, you have found a powerful ally in the accomplishment of your dream.

Successful people understand this. Their dream is both a head and heart affair. They see their vision in their mind and they feel deeply about it in their heart. This stirs up great passion, and passion is the fuel in your tank that will empower you to arrive at your preferred destination.

If you can’t feel it, you can’t see it! In other words, if your dream doesn’t stir up strong feelings in your heart, you may have some further work to do in more clearly defining what you really want.

The opposite is equally true. If you can’t see it, you can’t feel it! A stronger emotional response will be created when you can more clearly imagine your preferred future. See it and feel it. Feel it and see it. Imagination and emotion make a powerful team.

People with a dream are passionate. On a scale of 1-10, how passionate are you? Ask a close friend to give you some feedback.

In my next post, we will look at the motivation a dream inspires.

Eric R. Deschamps – Business Coach, Ottawa

When you have a sense of your own identity and a vision of where you want to go in life, you then have the basis for reaching out to the world and going after your dreams for a better life.

Stedman Graham

Everybody ends up somewhere in life. A few people end up somewhere on purpose. Those are the people with vision, with a clearly-defined dream.

Successful people may have other things going for them as well. But they certainly have vision. A clear dream, along with the courage to take action and follow through, dramatically increases your chances of success. It has been said that if you aim for nothing, you will hit it every time! I couldn’t agree more.

Professional hockey players are highly skilled and trained (and might I add highly paid). They make the game look so easy. Imagine the Boston Bruins and the Vancouver Canucks taking to the ice recently to battle it out for the prized Stanley Cup. Now picture the nets at either end of the rink being removed. Now what do you have? Highly trained and skilled players skating around in circles going nowhere fast, simply wearing themselves out and accomplishing nothing.

Unfortunately, far too many highly skilled and trained business owners are not achieving their full potential because they haven’t clearly identified their dream. They are “skating around in circles going nowhere fast.” Without a vision to guide their day-to-day decisions, they get trapped in the tyranny of the urgent.

Helen Keller, probably the most recognized blind person who ever lived, once said,

What would be worse than being born blind? To have sight without vision.

The Good Book says that without a vision, people perish. They run amuck. They live without restraint, giving their time and attention to whatever screams the loudest instead of what will get them ahead in life.

For a business owner, the backbone of any business plan must be structured around his/her dreams and passions. Only after you have clearly defined your life purpose can you effectively measure any progress toward that goal.

Defining a life mission is a process that requires self-evaluation and reflection. In other words, it takes work. But the benefits of clarifying what you want out of life is worth its weight in gold!

What about you? Do you have a vision for your life? For your business? If so, have you broken it down to action steps you perform every day? Are you living on purpose?

A clear vision can enhance your life and your business exponentially. In upcoming posts I will examine some of those benefits more specifically.

Until then, ask yourself the following questions. They can help kickstart the visioning process.

1. What do you want to do?
2. Why do you want to do it?
3. What are the benefits of doing it?
4. What are the negative results of not doing it?

Make a commitment right now to set aside 30-45 minutes this week to work on these four questions. You might be surprised by what they reveal.

Eric R. Deschamps – Business Coach, Ottawa