Is your vision compelling (you to act)?
When was the last time you SAW your vision? Seriously, when was the last time you found yourself PULLED from the present into the future?
Do you remember the last time you faced a serious dilemma in the present and felt your vision was guiding your present choices?
If the answer is “I can’t remember”, or “a year ago”, or “last quarter” then your vision is probably not a compelling (to you). Your vision isn’t present in your present.
Making our future bigger than our past
In his book, The Laws of Lifetime Growth Dan Sullivan lays 10 rules. The first and most important one (that is actually the subtitle of the book) is:
Always make your future bigger than the past.
Dan’s first rule is crucial because it describes the “physics” of unlocking a vision… It is all about GRAVITY.
Gravity: The physics of unlocking our vision
Gravity is the attractive pull between two objects that have mass. The strength of gravity is directly proportional to the amount of mass of each object
The present, fueled by our past and fear of change, has extremely strong “gravity”. This gravity attracts our focus which is why we find it almost impossible to resist the pull of the present and the urgent.
The only way to battle the pull of the present by creating an image of a better future that is so HUGE and so EXCITING that it COMPELS us act. It is a vision with a gravity force so strong we can’t resist it.
Is your vision driving your choices and actions?
When something is compelling we can’t resist it. It is stronger than us. Its mass is so great that it creates a force of gravity we can’t resist. We are pulled towards it.
It is actually very simple to know if we have created a compelling vision.
All we need to do is look at our priorities and actions in the past week/month/year... They will tell us who is driving us: our past and present or our future vision.
We just need to ask ourselves:
When in the past week/month/year did our vision impact our priority, decisions and actions?
If our future isn’t present in the present it will not impact our future!
Create a reminder to ensure your vision checks up on you
It’s really hard to get carried away with the present. This is why it’s really effective to send ourselves a reminder. “Ask” our vision to check onusyou from time to time. See if it is really driving our actions.
If it’s not driving our actions, we need to create a bigger, more exciting one until we feel we have a vision we can’t resist.
So… look at the past month? Were you driven by the past and present or by your vision?
