Can I get a VISION with 2 shots of espresso?
By: Raymond Castello
Tags: Life, Purpose, Goals, Entrepreneurship, Vision

The answer is no. You can’t. No one is going to give you a ‘vision’, you have to create your own, draw it, visualize it, feel it, make it happen.

I believe the ultimate weapon in life is to have a vision. Sometimes we hear you need to develop high income skills or even as Elon Musk likes to say “you get paid in relation to how hard is the problem you are solving”. That’s all true. However, skills won’t get you too far if you don’t have a vision of what you want to do with them. Or better said, “without a vision you can get far just not as fast”. Having a vision of the life you want to have, the work you want do, the impact you want to have or the person you want to become will make you take shortcuts that will get you faster to your end goal.

So what’s my point? Spend more time defining your vision and visualizing it. Put that timeline to it. “I want to have my own business by when I am 29”, “I want to reach a 1M people in the next 5 years”, “I want to do triathlons in 2 years”. Now let’s look at actual data around the power of setting vision.

Let’s start with New Year Eve’s… oh yes! that time of the year where we write down everything we want to achieve the following year, forget half of it by March, and not even remember our goals at the end of the following year. Funny enough, we will set very very similar goals the next year and just kind of keep running on the same wheel. A study shows that only 8% of people actually achieve their NYE’s goals, while the other 92% (count me in) don’t. So let me ask you this, why is that?

Goals are just goals. Instead vision is about purpose and meaning. Goals don’t necessarily need to align with who you are, but with vision is an absolute requirement. Vision is about painting an idealistic picture. With a vision you can achieve the impossible, without it you can’t. Vision will do this for you:

Set direction

Be your true north star

Let me share an example of someone really close to me that vision has take him further than anyone would have imagined. My stepbrother did not graduate from college. He was a full-time waitress at age 24. He was happy, never needed too much to be happy. However, he had always had a vision: “that one day I will fly planes”. You can call it a passion too, they are often tight or they end up being at some point. So one day he started studying to become a pilot. He was putting 12h a day for several months. He’s drive got him quickly to be the best in his class and to graduate faster. Every day he committed to his vision/dream his vision got stronger, more precise, more achievable, even easier. 4 years later he is now a captain for a jet company and work doesn’t feel like work, it feels like flying.

The really interesting part here is that when you have a vision people around you feel it and they want to help you. That’s why companies that are started with very strong visions grow faster, have better teams and achieve more. People want to work towards visions no matter if it’s their own or someone else. What matters is you feel you are part of it.

So let’s go and start thinking hard about your vision!