As I explained in my most recent posting, the vision is the most important of the three factors of self motivation. I also explained that your vision is the reason you are here, God’s purpose for your existence, your calling. Knowing your vision, your purpose, has an incredibly powerful impact on your motivation. Not knowing it can have a very detrimental one.
Many of us have heard the calling and are well aware of our vision. But in case you don’t know what it is, here is the first of four strategies to help you identify your vision.
Strategy 1. My waking dreams
A waking dream is a dream we have when we are awake. We all have these dreams. One of my waking dreams is sailing around the world on an ocean going trawler, a Nordhavn to be specific. Another is speaking Spanish. For most of us one of our dreams will be more special than the others. It will mean more to us. It will be a dream we are willing to work on and commit to. This special dream is likely to be related to our vision. To help us find this special dream, we need to examine our waking dreams.
As a first step, I suggest you take some time to write down your waking dreams. Don’t be critical as you do this first step. Don’t examine the feasibility of your dreams. Just write them down. You will examine them in the next step.
Once you have written down your waking dreams, the next step is to critically examine each one to see if it has the makings of your special dream, if you are willing to put in the time and energy necessary to make this dream come true.
As an example, one of my waking dreams, as I related above, is me speaking Spanish. However, although I do want to speak Spanish, I am not willing to commit the time necessary to learn Spanish. If I were I would have signed up for Spanish classes at the community college, or at least used the set of Rosetta Stone dvd’s I borrowed from the library and would now be speaking Spanish. So I know it is not the waking dream that relates to my vision. It is not a special waking dream.
- Would I pursue this dream if my success at it were guaranteed, if I could not fail?
- Would I pursue this dream if money were no object, if I didn’t have to worry about money?
- Would I pursue this dream if I didn’t have to worry about status or about disappointing anyone?
The answers to these questions may not tell you for certain which of your waking dreams is your vision, but you will certainly be closer to discovering it, and you will be finding out who you are.
Are you already aware of your special dream? If so, why not share it with the other readers, and maybe tell how you came to be aware of it?
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