I think it is important to take some time and reflect (my favorite word) on the ancient Chinese Wisdom:

“If you want to do something in a year, plant a seed,

If you want to plan for a few years, plant a tree,

If you want to plan for a lifetime, educate the young”.

Time

Obviously, the distinguishing factor about a seed, a tree and the young is time. Your vision is not that which you will do tomorrow, or next year or even in 5 years. No, those are goals. [ictt-tweet-inline]A true vision is for a lifetime and it is directly linked to your purpose in life.[/ictt-tweet-inline] In fact, where the rubber meets the road, a true vision is actually your purpose.

You will be amazed at how many people worldwide do not have a vision. You will be shocked at the numbers of those who are alive and have no clue why. I believe it is Mark Twain who ably and most profoundly said:

“There are two most important days in one’s life: The day one is born and the day one discovers why”

Why Are We Here?

I totally agree with that statement and all the permutations of its meaning. It is interesting to note that Twain sets a “day” when someone “discovers” their purpose and or vision in life. In other words, the largest population of the world is not born with the Angels announcing their purpose in life. For some reason, God has set it in such a way that we have to look, yearn, search, seek, ask for our purpose and vision on earth.

That is interesting because each of us has a purpose for being. [ictt-tweet-inline]You will never convince me that we are here on earth just to be.[/ictt-tweet-inline] It is the same way you will never convince me that there is no God, because if there were not God, then there would be no purpose. [ictt-tweet-inline]Why would we live if there was no God? For what purpose?[/ictt-tweet-inline]

I believe that God orchestrated us, fitted us and equipped us well enough in order to discover and live our purpose through maximizing the potential that he put in us.

In fact, I believe that a life is as useless as it is vision-less. In other words, the degree of your uselessness on earth is directly proportional to how well you lived to serve your God-given purpose.

Semblance of Vision

Now, the closest thing I can relate to in order to draw your attention to your vision is your desires. I am talking about your “heart’s desires”, those things that you want so badly that it breaks your heart if you did not have them. For you, life is not complete and fulfilling if the desire you want to see come to pass is not attained.

For the most part, this desire is never a self-gratifying urge to keep amassing things for your wife and kids and the clan. This desire is always for the good of “other people” and it is characterized by two distinct emotions:

Anger:

Whenever the people that you want to benefit from this “desire” get the exact opposite, you rise up with fury and anger. For example, if you desire to see the safety of women and you get to know of a situation that does the exact opposite, you vent your anger. Now, do not ever think that anger is a bad thing. Anger is an emotion that indicates that what you care about, or even that which you were called to do is being violated.

Compassion:

This is care for others. Now do not get me wrong. Some people might think that compassion is a preserve of the religious, but I can tell you that very many world changers (not necessarily religious) exuded lots of compassion. Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jnr, and those of that ilk are simple examples of leaders and world changers who exuded lots of compassion for people and yet they were not necessarily religious(Except MLK).

Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and other mighty business people exude high levels of compassion. This is expressed in the care and attention that they give to the products that they are creating. They are out to create an exemplary experience for people through the products that they build for them. In fact, without compassion in Business, one will easily fail.

There is an interesting interaction between anger and compassion that each visionary possesses. A visionary need enough anger to kick his compassion in gear in order to serve his purpose. His purpose makes him to create a big vision that he rallies people around until it is done.

Today, I want to share one of the three things that are absolutely critical to your vision. The next two articles will compliment this one. The information I need to share is so vast to cover with one article and so I have broken it down into three.

First, Know It

The very first thing that is absolutely critical to your vision is knowing it. The word “Know” in the Bible is a very intimate word, indicating intercourse between a husband and his bride. That is the kind of knowledge I am talking about your vision. You cannot know your vision as a matter of mental accent. You have to know it intimately and at a different level than the way you know the anthem of your favorite football team.

You have to know it at heart and spirit level. Someone might be asking: But how in the world will I do that?

1.Seek it:

Listen carefully. Your vision/purpose is not somewhere on the surface. In very rare cases it does come looking for you. For the most part however, you seek it. You have to activate the searcher in you. A great percentage of people who do not have a vision are not seekers for it. They are content or they have apathy when the answer is not immediately apparent. Seeking has to be continuous present tense. You do not do it once and forget all about it.

Your hunger for your vision determines the speed with which you will download it. Now, this is paradoxical because really at the heart level, we all know what our vision is. It might be vague in terms of the phraseology but we know it at the spirit level. Also note that it is important that your vision is not just a bunch of high sounding phrases put together. Your vision is actually your life poured out to the service of humanity. We all know it.

2.Ask for it.

From who? Well where do you think vision came from? If you do not believe in God, you can as well forget about this vision business. It is not for you. Vision is God’s original idea and the very reason as to why He formed you in the first place. So ask Him for it. You will be amazed at how shallow people’s prayers are: cell phones, cars, houses, school fees and rent. Nothing wrong with that, but honestly, when are we going to start knocking on heaven’s doors that something would be birthed in us that is bigger than us?

3. Let it simmer

Many people do not download the vision because they think it is either “too small” or “too big” for them. Please note that when you are starting, the vision is at the conception stage. I can tell you straight up that there could be no way you would know the permutations of your vision at conception stage. The only thing that tests the authenticity of your vision is your heart. It does so through those two emotions: Anger and Compassion.

4. Enlist A Coach:

It might take you years without a Coach to know your vision. It might take you much less time to rediscover what your vision is with the help of your coach. Find one. There are so very many coaches these days unlike it was some years back. Find one authentic that can help you.

Once you know what your vision is, you need to have it written down. The Bible says to write it down and make it plain. You cannot hold it in your head. That is not where it is supposed to be. You can treasure it in your heart, but it needs to be documented on paper. We shall then see what happens after you have “known” the vision.