There is an old proverb which says: “Where there its no vision, the people perish…” The corollary is equally true: where there is vision, the people flourish. There cannot be real growth, true development without vision. This is as true for the individual as it is for any grouping of individuals. It is true for you, for me, and it is true for humanity as a whole.

The privilege of vision, of imagination, of ideals and of inspiration is available to everyone on earth. Most people seem content to follow the vision of another, in some cases living vicariously through them, but you cannot truly live if you have not yet developed your capacity to articulate and actualize your vision.

Living without vision is not living, it is merely existing. And simply existing is boring, uninspiring, and draining.

I’ll let you in on a little secret: true vision is not manufactured by the mind alone. While true vision is crafted in the workshop of the mind and tempered by the fires of the heart, it originates in a place that few know much, if anything about. How do you find this place? There are many ways, but one of the most direct routes involves learning to think, to truly think for oneself.

The human mind is a marvelous thing, but it tends to crystallize that which would flow naturally, gracefully and abundantly into expression. Many things frustrate this flow, but fortunately, they are easily identifiable. Fears, prejudices, rigidly held opinions, and arbitrary intentions top the list, their common denominator being an underlying, chronic, unrelieved tension. Each of these mental and emotional states are restrictive in nature. They are man-made “diuretics” that increase the excretion of the waters of truth from the mind and heart, leaving the womb of creation–where original thought, true vision, and inspiration are conceived–an arid and desolate place.

Some have suggested that relaxation is key. It’s not simply enough to relax, however, for the mind and heart must be trained and toned to recognize the currents of true inspiration and vision from the ubiquitous, extraneous, and mixed impulses that tend to fill our hearts and minds when we are busy being busy (e.g., working on “me,” establishing a name for ourselves or simply reacting to that which is round about). If you are reacting to the world around you, you are already one step behind. What you see, hear, taste and smell already happened, so when you react to those things you are struggling with the past.

Again, when you live reactively, you are existing, not living.

Living is the process whereby vision is articulated and all things are made new. You have an opportunity, a privilege, and a responsibility to make all things new in the world you center. Anything less is technically beneath you, though most people set the bar so low in their existing that it is hard to squeeze much of anything beneath them.

Dare to share your vision for the world we steward together. Dare to transcend that which has heretofore kept the real you imprisoned and hidden from sight. Don’t be afraid to fail and more importantly, don’t be afraid to succeed.

The world needs you!

Photo by Bobby Johnson on Unsplash