Written By Nicholas Cardot25 Comments
You Can Seize Only What You Can See (Part 2)
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“Can you see it?”
I was 10 years old and in front of me was a stack of wood and materials that the lumber truck had just dropped off. Next to the wood was a giant rectangular hole in the ground. It was about 4 feet deep and ran perhaps 100 feet long and 60 feet wide. Someday it would hold a concrete foundation, but right now it was nothing more than a giant mud puddle.
“Yeah, dad. I see it. There’s a bunch of wood and a hole in the ground.” I pointed at them as I spoke.
He laughed at my response. “Can you see the house there? Can you see the picture window right there in front? The bushes over there? The garage over there?”
I was only 10 years old. I had no idea what he was talking about. At my young age, I didn’t have the foresight to see what hard work applied to those materials could produce. I couldn’t see the potential for that work site but soon I would come to learn what he was talking about.
A few months later that small lot sported a new building on it. My father’s experiences in carpentry allowed him the ability to see that building before it actually existed. He visualized the final product and it was his vision that fueled him and his crew toward its completion.
Basic Characteristics of a Leader’s Vision
- Vision Starts Inside You. Although I hope to inspire and excite you about building and growing your blog, I can’t create a vision for you. I can’t lay out the direction that you should go or the goals that you should have. Your vision needs to start with you. It needs to be your dream.
- Vision Draws From Your Experiences. My father was able to visualize his final project so easily because he had seen it happen before starting this project. Either he had built houses before that or he had seen it done. Either way, he had the experience necessary to project in his mind what could be and what it would take to make it a reality. Take a few minutes and think about the great things that you’ve seen or experienced. What have you seen that you would like to accomplish?
- Vision Inspires Those Around You. One of the most powerful things about vision isn’t just the impact that it has on us, but the impact that it has on those who we interact with. When you empower your blog readers with the ability to see your vision, they will rally around you. People inherently love to help. If you can effectively get them to see your vision then you can get them to be a part of it.
- Vision Fuels & Directs You. Vision is the compass to a great leader. Without vision you will wander in circles hoping to randomly win the lottery or inherit a fortune. With a vision, you are able to set goals, prioritize, move forward toward great success. Vision inspires and enables you.
Steps to Building Your Own Vision
- Take an Honest Look at Your Abilities. When you’re starting out, you need to set dreams and goals that you honestly believe you can accomplish. If something is outside of your scope then you either need to adjust the vision or make plans for continued self-improvement like going back to school or learning a new skill.
- Stay True to Your Passions. What is it that makes you truly happy? What makes you sad? What is it that really makes you smile? Figure these things out and develop a vision catered to who you are and what you want out of life. You don’t have to follow after anyone else. You have to find out what really makes you happy.
- Write it Down. Click through to the next article in your RSS reader and you’ll never gain the powerful advantage of developing a vision. Take the time to sketch your ideas on a piece of paper. This will help you to visualize your dreams even more and it will help you to commit yourself to your vision.
Group Reflection
What is your vision? What are your passions? What do you dream about? What advice would you give to those around you about their visions?
Let’s take the blinders off of our eyes and try to see what great things we can accomplish.
Nicholas Cardot
Nick uses his blog Site Sketch 101 to express his passion for helping bloggers and webmasters connect with real people through brilliant designs, unique content, and genuine creativity. Nicholas Cardot has 186 post(s) at Site Sketch 101
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Gimme A Dream said:
I’ve had visions like that. I’ve wrote them down but for some reason I’ve never really followed through. Or almost never it seems.
Thanks Nicholas, for helping me see that I need to be more focused on the deed…, blogging!
Wynn
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Gimme A Dream –> You’re welcome. Thanks so much for your feedback.
Rocky Garcia said:
Hey! I’m glad to be on the first 10 persons to comment on this post. That was a good vision on posting this post.
“Stay true to you passions” is like the life blood of a human. It keeps your interest fresh and stress free, if you truly love what you do.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Rocky Garcia –> Thanks Rocky. You’re exactly right. If you stray from your passions then you end up living someone else’s dream. Stay true to who you are and do what makes you happy.
InternetHow Blog said:
I think it is important to identify our true abilities. There are things we might not good at, however for sure there are other things, we have the potential to be good. Sometimes it can be difficult to identfy those abilities. But we can ask others around us to help us.
My biggest vision and dream was to have a family and finacily stable. I have my family now, and I am on the way to end money worries
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Nicholas Cardot said:
InternetHow Blog –> Asking your close friends or your loved ones for feedback is a great way to find out more about yourself. That is an absolutely great tip.
Teen Blogger said:
Nice Post.
I think everybody has visions, dreams at a certain point in their life. We all have our own ability to do things, but it’s up to yourself to find out how.
It think visions are to help you and I think we all should follow our dreams.
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Daan | Whenigetrich.com said:
Great article. I think your vision is the strongest pillar that holds up your blog. If you keep your vision in mind it’ll jump off every article you write. And people will appreciate that, because they don’t have to wonder what your blog is about. They read one article and they know what you’re up to.
I’ve been visiting your blog a week now and I love your posts. The work you deliver is very inspiring. Since we share quite the same topics maybe I’ll approach you soon for a guest post on your great blog? Would be great.
Keep up the great work!
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Daan | Whenigetrich.com –> That’s so true. You can’t hide your passion or your vision. It will be so apparent to your readers and that is a great thing. I would absolutely love to have you guest post on here. Just get in touch with me on my contact page and I’ll help you get your article on here.
Bruce Teague said:
I guess I’m not entirely sure what my whole vision is. I have parts of it, and often I think I have it figured out, but then I realize I don’t enjoy bits of it or it doesn’t work. I usually alter it and keep trucking, but lately I haven’t been too sure what exactly to alter it too.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Bruce Teague –> It’s alright to alter it. Remember that it’s easier to turn a moving car than a parked one. At least with a vision, you are moving forward.
Gabe | freebloghelp.com said:
Great tips on creating a vision.
Don’t want to be a total downer but I also think that having a vision is different from being a visionary.
Some folks, no matter how hard they try, simply can’t be visionaries. They are wired to be tactical and follow the lead of strategic thinkers.
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Mary E. Ulrich said:
Love this post. Just had to print it out.
Even though, I just paid $80.00 for a new ink cartridge and promised myself I would not print out anything for at least a week.
Oh well. Thanks for the tutorial on vision.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Mary E. Ulrich –> I’m sorry that you had to spend some more ink on this, but I’m thankful that it was helpful to you.
Reza Winandar said:
I already have a vision about my future. I’ll be the richest guy in the world, beating up Bill Gates and Donald Trump, and I BELIEVE I CAN!
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Reza Winandar –> Ha ha. Good luck with that one. Don’t forget about me when you get there.
wizely said:
Great article and I like your ’steps to building your own vision’. I’d just add one more to that list and that’s “Just go do it!” – experience comes from ‘doing’ not thinking, passions are stoked by following them and visions wither and die if they’re not acted on.
I know that’s the point here, but for me it’s a strange Catch-22 situation where you need vision to achieve but you need to achieve to have vision.
I’ve been lucky enough to turn my vision of a better lifestyle into reality by leaving the ‘rat race’ and spending 7 years travelling the world (I just this month emigrated to New Zealand) while building a successful business that thrives on repeat business and referrals because I care about what I do.
It just took realising that my vision wasn’t some distant dream, all I needed to do was act on it.
You can see more to seize when you open your eyes wider.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
wizely –> What kind of business do you operate? I’m curious to know more about it.
wizely said:
Sorry Nicholas – I always forget to drop a plug for what I do (drawback of not being a spammer)! Nothing exciting I’m afraid – I’m a humble copywriter who toils with words and web designs to help folks get more business.
But I like to get involved in the communities I live in so do a lot of volunteer work – from teaching English to cute (yet slightly demonic) Ecuadorian kids to taking Australian teenagers with behavioural problems whitewater rafting/potholing/abseiling etc.
izzat aziz said:
with great vision you can inspire lots of people. see steve jobs for example, i never meet him, i just hear to his speeched, see his presentation but his vision just wow me.. that is what vision can do, it bring people up. just another great post from you.
Nicholas Cardot said:
izzat aziz –> Thanks so much. I’m glad you like it.
You Can Seize Only What You Can See Part 2 | Blog Mixer said:
[...] Site Sketch 101 Presents You Can Seize Only What You Can See Part 2 [...]
scheng1 said:
Vision is important. Patience and hard work are even more important. After all, having a vision of a house does not mean the house will automatically appear. It still needs to be build from ground.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
scheng1 –> That’s true. But without blueprints you will have nothing but a pile of lumber.
Eric said:
Creating a vision is the first and last step toward getting what you want out of life. If you can see it and figure out what you need to be able to do in order to make it happen, all that’s left is taking action, making some mistakes (we’re all human here and we have to learn somehow), and discovering just how far what we know will take us.
And sometimes it takes seeing someone else’s vision and dreams come true to inspire us and help us create a vision of our own. We as humans like to watch and we get ideas from seeing what can be done or from thinking what could be done.
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