Raise Bar Here!

When snowboarding in Vail, CO with my son Jaxon this past spring, I snapped this picture of a couple of signs at the top of one of the lifts. One simple question and two requests that have relevance for those getting off that lift and deep importance for those who are skiing through life.

In my work with audiences around the world I often ask two questions; “How many of you have life insurance?” and “How many of you have written out a personal vision statement?” In response to the first question, almost every hand goes up. In response to the second query, I rarely see a raised hand. “Looks like most of us are more prepared to die than we are to live,” I tell them! Sounds like I’m being mean, but my intent is pure. A personal vision describes the future we want – the future we have the ability to create by the choices we make and the plan we put in place. A vision statement is like the cover of a puzzle box that helps us know what it is supposed to look like when we put all the pieces together. It answers the profound and important question, “Where are you going?”

Those without a vision are left to react to life as it comes at them and many find, at some stage in life, the inability to answer the question “where are you going?” has left them in a place of disappointment and regret. As Senator John McCain wrote in a Fast Company article on courage several years ago, “Regret is an awful companion.” I’ve found there are three reasons people don’t do the work to develop a personal vision: they don’t believe it will make a difference; they have never thought of it; or they are afraid to try it.

Those with the first type of excuse resign themselves to a belief that circumstances, external influences, and the behavior of others dictate how things turn out. To create a collage, vision board, or frame a calligraphy vision statement for the office is hokey and a waste of time. I can’t say much to address this audience other than to state my belief that we have tremendous power to impose our personal will on circumstance, environment, and our futures. Proactive people enjoy the fruits of a mindset that says, “I’m the architect of my own life. I am responsible for my own happiness.” Research demonstrates the viability of visualization as a tool to help performance. Forbes recently reported on a TD Bank study in which “results show that business owners who take the time to visualize their company are more successful and more likely to reach their goals than those who don’t.” As Viktor Frankl wrote, “the last of the human freedoms” is to “to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.” One can never know if a personal vision makes a difference until one tries it. We get to choose.

The second type of person hasn’t tried creating a vision because it just never occurred to them that it could make a difference or that it was something that one would want to do. They lack the cynicism and laziness of the first group and their self-confidence combined with the trust they have in the source of the idea leads them to give it a go. They craft a vision statement or create a vision board that serves as a tangible representation of the life they want to live. Everything that has ever been created was first a design or image or thought of the mind. As Dr. Stephen Covey taught, there are two creations: the mental and the physical. If we have nothing in our minds about the future we want then we will end up only with what luck provides. This group has come to believe that we are drawn to and attract in the physical universe the things that we put in our mind and the images and words that make up a vision board keep us thinking about the right things.

It takes personal courage to make and follow through on a life plan and the person with the third issue with doing vision work allows fear to stymie them. They perceive risk in stating boldly what they intend to be, feel, do, and have at some future time in their lives. What does one put at risk by crafting a vision? Perhaps we will fall short of our ambitions – perhaps we will fail in some way. They worry that the cynics won’t approve. They fret that perhaps their vision board won’t look as amazing as the ones they found in Pinterest. Perhaps. And the surest path to failure is not to try.

Note that a display of courage requires the presence of fear. The courageous person is not ignorant or unaware of what can go wrong – but they become so committed to what’s on the other side of the thing they fear that they take action anyway. The coward shrinks from the opportunity and in an attempt to feel better about the decision seeks to ridicule those with plans who do know where they are going.

For those who are afraid to put your vision out there, perhaps you can gain some confidence from Jack Canfield’s statement about how vision works, “Your brain will work tirelessly to achieve the statements you give your subconscious mind. And when those statements are the affirmations and images of your goals, you are destined to achieve them!” For those who see the power of vision work, my challenge to you is to “raise [the] bar here!” Realize that each of us is capable of greatness, unique and amazing contribution, and unspeakable joy. Raise the bar of your thinking. Define with your mind a remarkable future that stretches you and the universe; move your vision from your mind to a concrete, specific statement or to a series of defining images and words on a vision board. Finally begin to take action on the things the universe puts in your way. Remember that knowing where you are going without making a plan and putting in effort is nothing more than a hallucination.

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