James Kilgarriff’s Weblog

Having a vision attracts to you the people, circumstances and opportunities that would otherwise not come your way if you are not concious or have not formulated in your mind a compelling vision.

When I worked for a a large Telecommunications company we were always discussing what the vision or mission statement of the company was. The idea is that all concerned would be aware of the vision daily and we were aspiring to make that vision a reality.

If you are not excited about a vision then the chances are the vision will not come to fruition. Everyone concerned has to buy into that vision and feel good about it if it is ever going to happen. I have found that most visions in large companies come from the top down and in a vision statement so many companies have a default line: “to meet shareholder´s expectations” or words to that effect.

What I would like to suggest is that you consider some of the trends in business and society and look to connect to that potential vision and contribute to it.

A great definition of a vision is: “Something much bigger than you that may not come about in your life time but you will contribute to it anyway”.

The vision will usually be about an idea that is going to happen even if you are not part of it – It will happen anyway. The difference will be your personal contribution. In other words, work towards making it manifest and do not get attached to any specific outcomes.

What tends to happen is that you find yourself alot happier knowing that you are giving it your best and you are not necessarily responsible to make make it happen.

Consider some of the early trends going on in business and society and see if you can hook into them and that you feel excited about the trend. For example in my case I see a vision of the world living in more peaceful ways than today. This vision may not happen in my lifetime, however, I am only focused in doing the best I can to add to that vision. I notice each day more and more people are talking about creating more peace and reducing conflicts. It is an idea who´s time has come – as far as I am concerned.

If we look at business – more and more larger organisations are taking on sustainability ideas and making these part of their business strategies. Sustainability will only become a bigger idea as each year goes by.

Look at the internet – social networks are exploding and the trend is that we share with each other our ideas, interests and aspirations. I am part of the Facebook social network and I link to “friends” and like monded people all around the globe. Facebook is growing at a rate much faster than the founder of Facebook ever thought possible. Social networks are now being considered by large organisations and so what has started as an idea on the internet is moving quickly into the corporate world.

So if you are looking for a vision, look at were there are new or yet to be new trends.

A great question which I have borrowed from a Thomas Leonard from Coachville on discovering a vision is..

“Is there something that could be done in this lifetime that could never happen, but I would love to see it happen – what would that be?”

So to conclude this post: having a vision attracts, is coming from discovering what is already a potential based on trends or one´s gut feeling on what will be the next big thing both in business and society.