Does Your Life Have a Vision or are You Blowing in the Wind?

Posted on February 28, 2008 by Editor in Chief, Pick The Brain | CATEGORIES: self improvement

A friend of mine who owns his own painting business highly recommended the book, The E-Myth, so I had to check it out. I’m not quite through it yet, but already it’s changed the way I think about business and taught me many things I’ll be certainly apply throughout my career.

Perhaps the most powerful idea in the book (and one that is relevant to PTB) is the necessity of having direction in your life before you can create it in your business. This passage in particular resonated with me:

Great people have a vision of their lives that they practice emulating each and every day.

They go to work on their lives, not just in their lives.

Their lives are spent living out the vision they have of their future, in the present. They compare what they’ve done with what they intend to do. And where there’s a disparity between the two, they don’t wait very long to make up the difference.

They go to work on their lives, not just in their lives.

I believe it’s true that the difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next.

The difference between the two is the difference between living fully and just existing.

The difference between the two is living intentionally and living by accident.

Are you living intentionally? For most of my life I wasn’t. I was waiting for life to find me. For my talent and passion to jump out and grab me. But it didn’t and it won’t. You have to find it for yourself.

Once you cross this barrier (and no one can do it for you), the life you desire starts falling place.

  • http://www.passionbasedlearning.com Amir | Passion-Based Learning

    “You have to find it for yourself.”

    Precisely, and that’s where the challenge comes in. I think it’s very important to create a mission statement and wake up every morning to face it too.

    Mine is:

    “To live, play, party and fight for all the causes I believe in”.

    Then you basically do monthly audits to check if what you’re doing is helping you achieve that mission.

  • http://blog.lodewijkvdb.com Lodewijk van den Broek

    Having a vision for your own life is essential I think. If your not working on realizing your own goals and vision, you’re working on someone else’s.

    I have a set of personal core values that are the underlying pillars of my vision and my mission statement. I just posted about it yesterday, sharing my mission statement and asking readers to do the same.

    What caught my attention is this part:
    Perhaps the most powerful idea in the book (and one that is relevant to PTB) is the necessity of having direction in your life before you can create it in your business.

    I know quite a lot of people who have a clear vision for their business, but lack one for their life. Sometimes even to the point that the vision for the business gets all encompassing and takes over the life entirely.

    The business may be successful, but the lives needn’t be. So that kinda contradicts with the message of the book. But it got me curious :)

  • http://financialphilosopher.typepad.com/thefinancialphilosopher/ The Financial Philosopher

    Great post! I have not read “The E-Myth” but have written on this subject…

    I will agree that a “vision” for our life is integral to success in all areas of our life; however, while the act of planning is essential, I believe randomness, or the “accident,” has more to offer than following a structured “plan.”

    The act of “planning” brings to the fore our thoughts, ideas, and objectives for our future and sets us forth in the best direction with today’s knowledge. Adhering to a structured “plan,” however, can prevent us from finding opportunities we may have otherwise overlooked.

    I call this “enabling opportunities…”

    http://financialphilosopher.typepad.com/thefinancialphilosopher/2008/02/enabling-opport.html

    “As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

    “Plans are worthless. Planning is essential.” ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

  • http://jonathanmead.com Jonathan Mead

    Great article. I just finished the 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss and he recommended this book as well. I’ll be sure to check it out. I agree, that you need to have a vision, a direction in your personal life as well as your business life. Hopefully these two can become congruent, and your passion can become your source of income. That is my ultimate goal.

    http://jonathanmead.com – Authenticity, Clarity, Balance

  • http:///www.thehealthylivinglounge.com Carole

    Thanks for reminding me of the E-Myth. A rather scary but true fact is that I read the book probably 15 years ago. Now that’s starting to show my age.

    I’m living intentionally this year and focusing solely on my love and passion for writing.

    Carole

    http://www.thehealthylivinglouge.com

  • http://www.varsityblah.com/about Eugene (Editor, Varsity Blah)

    Confucius said, “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” Truer words could not have been spoken! Ultimately, we all have a desire for growth and this desire must be satisfied. Choose a vision for your life that is meaningful and work towards that vision everyday. And remember to take it one day at a time. Wake up every morning with the conscious intention to go out and “maximize” each moment that comes your way. It really doesn’t have to be any more complex than that.

  • http://www.robschaumer.com/blog/ Rob Moshe

    I read E-Myth Revisited and am now reading E-myth Mastery. It might if you are in the middle of reading Revisited I would recommend changing gears and jumping to Mastery. It covers the same ideas, but is more geared to taking action.

    If you are having a hard time finding your vision/purpose, you can think back to a time when you were at your best, that moment will most likely contain the elements of your passion. If you can’t remember a time when you were at your best, remember a time when you were at your worst, the opposite of those elements will also contain your passion.

  • http://deardazzy.blogspot.com susan missing daz

    You can have all the vision you want for your life-but what’s you backup when life spits at you?
    My late hubby and I had all the creativity, vision, etc that two people ever needed. Our life was lived with full intention, lots of love and complete trust in the universe.
    The he died. He was 42.
    To live the way I used to is impossible.
    I am forever changed, and I will never trust in the universe again.
    I know better now.

    • Bob

      Sorry for your loss, but you seem to have lacked the most important thing needed, FAITH. I lost my first wife at 36 years old. I held nothing negative because of my quick and sudden loss. I had FAITH that there is some reason to all things that we do not understand. I have faith in that as long as I’m still alive I have a purpose until my own end. When people get so wrapped up with trying to understand every little nuance in our existence they tend to stop being grateful for the moment they have at hand.

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