How's Your Vision

Hello Warrior,

I decided that I wanted to record a video to share in these emails rather than type out a message, but apparently the program I am using wont allow me to embed the video, so here is a link to the video:

It's only viewable through the link for now, but I do plan on publishing it publicly in another week or so.

If you would rather just read the transcript, here it is:

"Hello warriors! This is Lawrence Stone, and I am the basic trainer. I want to establish rhythm to your vision. Thank you very much for subscribing to my email list and for viewing this video. I appreciate you spending some time with me while I can talk to you and hopefully, I can inspire you to improve your life. In today's video I'm going to be talking about visions. Visions are fantastic, visions are important. In so many aspects of our lives, whether it is professional or personal, we need to have visions. So, the quote I'm including with this email is from, it's credited to George Washington Carver, it says, “Where there is no vision, there is no hope.” And I like this quote, I feel like it goes along with the old proverb, the biblical proverb that says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” I feel like the reason why they perish is because they have no hope. And again, it just ties into, you need a vision to help you have that hope. So that you know what direction you’re going in, so you won't wander off onto the wrong path and perish.

So with that let's dive in and talk about it. What is a vision? So, when we're looking at your vision, we first want to look at your goals. Sit down and talk about your goals. A lot of people don't even have goals. So hopefully you're at least one of those people who has some goals, or at least has an idea of a goal. I hope you take time to sit down, and you write it down if you ever haven’t written them down yet. What happens is you take those goals, and you examine the why. That is your vision. People set a goal, “I want to have 100,000 dollar income.” That's great. But why? Just to have money? That's not a good enough reason. You're not going to get there if all you want is money. You need to have… “I want to help people this way,” “I want to take my family on our dream vacation,” “I want to… you know, a second honeymoon with my spouse or significant other.” Know the why. Why do you want to have that money? Why do you want to have that income and how’s it going to feel?

You might want to lose 50 pounds. Okay, that's great. It's a very admirable goal. But, why? Just so you can lose the weight. I mean, you might find that as you're getting close to it, because you don't know what your vision is, you get down and you say, “Yeah, I'm close enough let’s go ahead and celebrate and gain those 50 pounds back that I just lost.”

Or you find people who work towards their six-figure income, all of a sudden, they can't hit it again. They can't figure out why. Even though they hit it once, because they didn't have that vision. Most of them never even get there because they don't have that vision. It could be the same thing to try to learn a new skill. “I want to learn how to build a website.” It's great. What do you want to do with the website? Do you want to build another website that rivals Amazon? Or do you want to add to Amazon’s vision? There's no wrong answer there. But if you don't have your own vision, you're going to find yourself just going with the flow people, down whatever vision, whatever path they want. And that's not necessarily the right path for you. Yeah, maybe your paths will be going in the same direction, but know you want to go there. Know there's a reason and a purpose, behind it.

So I'm going to share a story, kind of an analogy, along with this. After high school, I had the opportunity to go on this adventure down to Mexico. I lived in Mexico for a little while. It was a blast! When I got down there I made friends with a guy. Now, I haven't gotten his approval for this story, so we're just going to call them Miguel, for the purposes of visiting the story. And Miguel was a great guy. He helped me learn Spanish. He showed me around, helping me with some of the customs of Mexico, taught me how to eat the food. He got me into spicy food. And if my wife brings it up, the spicy food has not ruined my taste buds. It has refined them. That is the correct R-word for my taste buds, with the spicy food. So, with that, it was a great experience. And one day, we're walking down the road, end of the day. And I noticed that Miguel, when he walks, he looks down. He can't see where he's going. I also noticed that while he's walking, if I step this way, he'll step this way. And if I step this way, he'll step this way. And I learned that not only was he not watching what he was going, but I had ability to direct him where he needed to go, if you will. So clearly, when I saw power polls, or light posts, or, you know, a phone booth, I would steer him around it, right? No. No. Because I was the one looking ahead. I saw, oh, well, if just step this way, eventually, he'll just walk right into that post. And he'd walk into it. And the first few times, he actually walked into it. And eventually, he would get close and he would get three or four inches away before he'd stop. Because he'd catch on to me a little bit, but not enough to look at. And so I just kept taking him down the path I wanted to. And he'd run into it, or almost run into it, and I’d apologize. Like, oh, Miguel, I wasn't paying attention. I'm so sorry. I'll try to do better next time, and I'll watch out. All the while I'm saying this, but I'm thinking, I bet I can get him to run into that next post down road. I think my best was three. I got to run into three in a row. It was, kind of awesome. So, but I don't want to use my powers for evil anymore. I will take you down a better path. Anyways, and if Miguel does listen to this, I apologize.

So with that, this happens with us in our lives. When we don't have a vision instead of focusing on where we want to go, we're looking down on our feet. And all we're worried about is the next step. Or sometimes we have that vision, and we start walking towards it. But eventually we worry because, wow, what if we step on something we're not supposed to? You know, I'm really worried about this step. I need to make money for my business. I need to lose another pound this week, otherwise I'm not going to make any progress.

Then someone comes along and says, hey, I see you have a skill. Let me just step you this way. It's a little bit towards the direction you're not interested in going in, but it's direction I’m going. And maybe their path isn't a bad path for them, but it's not taking you to your vision. But they say, hey, you know what? I need your skill, and I don't have a lot of money. Will you please do this. And since your next step is all you're focused on, and you think your next step is, well I just needs money, then you go down that path, get money rather than the path that goes down your vision. Because you're looking down at your feet, at what your next step is. And you're allowing someone to take you off course. And then as you get there, your going to run into other people, and he's going to tell his friends about, hey, this guy just gave me a really good deal. He really helped me out. Or this girl, or whoever. And then… they're going to pile on. And all of a sudden, you're going to wind up your path with more and more people who aren't going in the same direction as you. But because you found yourself trapped in there, you're going to have to keep going. All of sudden you path is back here, if you ever do get a refocus on it, you have to fight that much harder against this flow that you've created around you in the wrong direction. Okay?

This is why vision is so important.

When you're looking up, and you're seeing where you want to go, and you're seeing your vision, guess what? You're still taking the next step. That's not stopping you from taking the next step. In fact, not only you're taking the next step, but you're aware of a few steps ahead of you. And you know what else is coming? And you know what? You can see this guy coming. He's going to collide with you and try to knock you off your course. You can brace yourself for it, or you can speed up and try to get ahead of him. Okay? Because you can see it coming. And yeah, there's going to be bumps and there's going to be people and there's going to be things and there's going to be… thoughts. They're going to try to get you to go in this other direction.

As long as you stay focused on that vision, you can help get around this thing. You can help get clear of those things. And if they bump you, you can get back on and fight against them and keep going with your flow.

And guess what? You're going to find other people eventually who may seem a little directionless, who can help you with your path. And hopefully they're going to have the same path as you, which is going to add even more reinforcements to you. And you're going to help bring them along. And honestly, you're going to be able to create a journey towards your path. It's going to help lots of people. Okay?

This is the great thing about having a vision. This is why you need to have a vision. This is why you need to focus on your vision. Too many people, the overwhelming majority of people, don't have a vision or lose sight of their vision. This is why so many businesses fail because they take the path of least resistance. They let someone else dictate where they're going to go. And eventually they'll find themselves in a desperate situation where they're not getting anywhere closer to where they want to be.

So, your homework, your assignment, as it relates to this video, is to sit down with your goals, figure out what your vision is, what your path is, what it is that you want to accomplish. I want you to think about the emotions of accomplishing that goal. How that will feel, how it will affect the people around you, how it affects your family, you co-workers or your employees, your friends, your community, your church, your whatever. Envision it. You can close your eyes and envision it. That's fine. Whatever it takes to help remind you of that. So, figure out your vision and then every day find a way to remind yourself of that vision. Because if you don't find a way to remind yourself of that vision, you're going to start looking down. A couple steps ahead of you, a few steps ahead of you, until all of a sudden, all your worried about is a step ahead of you or even a step you're taking. And guess what, a lot of times it's going the wrong way. You cannot consistently be taking steps in the right direction if you are not looking up and watching where you're going. You will lose hope. You will fail. So that's my hope for you today. Find your vision. Move forward.

Again, thank you for sharing some time with me. Go out and do great things. Thank you."

I hope you enjoyed the story and the message. It is an important message I feel we all need to hear.

Now go, apply what you've learned, and watch what happens!!!

Thanks,

Lawrence Stone
[email protected]
Go to www.thebassictrainer.com to schedule a free discovery appointment.

Clifton Strengths: Context, Belief, Futuristic, Individualization, and Connectedness

P.S. I love helping people focus on their visions. I am hosting an all-day event this Saturday, at the Idaho Innovation Center in Idaho Falls and Online, around Vision Boards and how the can help you stay focused on your vision. I'll include the flier below. You can register at www.thebassictrainer.com, or at the door the morning of.