Where there is no vision, my people perish . . .
—Proverbs 29:18
In the game of life there are winners and losers. Sometimes the only thing separating the two is that winners see themselves as winners. I remember upon graduating from high school, being asked at the tender age of 17, “Now, what will you do with the rest of your life?” I felt like Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate. Although there was no Mrs. Robinson, I still felt the pressure of being required to answer the question. Because I worked in gas stations most of my years of high school I replied, “I just want to pump gas the rest of my life.” It was not the answer the person who was asking the question wanted to hear nor was it the answer that I really wanted to give. I was at a loss with the question. I hadn’t seriously considered it. I loved working on cars but couldn’t see myself doing that for a living. In fact, it was a challenge for me to see myself doing any one thing for the rest of my life. Little was I to know that this was the very trait that would establish and fuel a vision for my life.
Vision is a funny thing. Some say it is our preferred future. Some see it as that thing we want to become. Others see it as the lens to view our future. In my early years after high school, I don’t remember having thought of the word or the concept and if I did, I would not have entertained the idea for more than a moment. Vision, for me, was what people had when they were on bad drugs. It was temporary, fleeting, unattainable, and usually led to weeks or months in an insane asylum. This was not my preferred future.
In a game of cards, all the players try to visualize what the other players have in their hands. If they are good, they have counted the cards that have already been played, weighed the probabilities that key cards are being held by various players, and assessed how their own cards will stack up against a hand that might play out as they thought it would. Naturally, unless one is a pro with total recall, most of the time probability does not play out. The cards being played come as a surprise, and you end up losing or tossing your cards in. It is disappointing. You may have rendered the perfect poker face while never giving any sense of your actual hand, but chance can be a cruel taskmaster.
If you live your life as one chance after another, you will live it without purpose, always being the dog wagged by its own tail. Any goals that you may stumble upon never materialize because your attention span toward accomplishing these goals lacks wisdom, strategy, and energy. You are at the mercy of every idea or whim that floats by. You will be tugged back and forth without direction. You will have no target to aim at, nothing guiding your trajectory.
The Navy, for me, was the dog, and I was the tail. I did what the dog told me to do. I was an obedient tail. Now, I’m not saying that the Navy didn’t help me; it did. However, I still didn’t have a vision for my life and spent four years doing my job, enjoying the immediacy of life, and not preparing for anything in particular. Even when I left the Navy, I was wandering aimlessly. I had the GI Bill that would pay some of my college expenses, but I knew I would have to work to supplement my income. I was happy to leave the Navy, but still felt that my future was something that I had no vision for. I lacked passion and didn’t know what to do so I went back to college.
This time around, I was motivated to complete my college degree. Having worked mindlessly the previous four years, I enjoyed putting my mind back to work. However, because I really didn’t have a passion, I studied things that I was interested in but not passionate about. I really had no passion for anything in particular and therefore I had no vision. My interests were broad and varied, but I lacked purpose. I didn’t see how the hand that I’d been dealt would help me in any way.
When You Lack Vision Follow Your Instincts
Because of a lack of passion for anything in particular, I returned to what I knew, how to be entertaining. I channeled my energies into singing and acting. I was pursing one of those college degrees that essentially would not open any doors. For some reason, it never dawned on me that I would need talent. Well, I was an adequate actor and landed some bit television parts here and there. They were nothing to write about and paid very little. I enjoyed being on stage or in front of the camera, but the enjoyment was only for the moment as it fed my ego. I really didn’t want to be a career actor, but I couldn’t see myself doing anything else at the time. I didn’t have a clear vision for acting and just enjoyed the camaraderie of my fellow actors during rehearsals and performances.
Upon graduating from college, I struggled to find a job. I knew I needed a career but had no vision for what that should be. I was again at that place where I couldn’t see options. I went back to the Navy recruiter. I applied and got accepted to Officer Candidate School and left for Newport, Rhode Island. My fellow officer candidates for the most part were motivated. Most of them saw themselves one day commanding their own ships. They were passionate about this. I didn’t understand it. For me, this was just a job, not an adventure. I did well but lacked the passion they had.
Studying calculus, engineering, and navigation were interesting but just part of the job of a naval officer. What I really enjoyed was studying leadership and understanding the dynamics of people working together. Although this was mostly in the context of shipboard life, I could see so many connections to how organizations functioned. I began to understand more clearly why people acted the way they did. I saw the reasons for various behaviors and developed an understanding of how to bring the best out in people. I was beginning to find something I could be passionate about and developing a vision for my life. I saw the potential for a winning hand.
After I received my commission as an ensign and was sent to my first ship, I was able to put into practice all that I had learned. I was adequate in most things but did really well in ship handling. I loved being on the bridge of the ship underway, making decisions, giving engine and rudder commands, and working with the men and women on watch with me. I loved the teamwork that went into running the ship well. The precision, the collegiality, and the discipline all fed my growing vision to understand leadership and management better. I was becoming passionate about this, and had become an intense student of the fields of leadership, management, and organizational behavior. I would find myself dissecting various situations, trying to understand the motives behind each player. I tried to see what cards they were holding that gave them some sense of superiority or strategic advantage. I watched as scenarios played out daily and later reflected on the ways the various hands were played.
My background in acting had prepared me well for this. As an actor, one must understand his or her motivations as well as the motivations of others in the scene and then respond to them. When this is done well, the scene becomes real. The actors are no longer acting; they have become their characters. Their characters have come alive with their own purposes. They have captured the vision of the characters and put that vision into practice. They are motivated by the vision, and all actions are initiated in pursuit of that vision. This is when acting tries to imitate life, and to some degree it does. However, it short-circuits the pursuit of vision by distilling actions down to the most essential ones that are consistent with the vision and the motivations that accompany it. Anything else is superfluous to the scene and would make the act way too long for any audience. The audience gets to see the vision for each character unfold in less than two or three hours. Each character has a preferred future that is revealed in its most honest, albeit abbreviated sense.
Life is not so pure in this way. Other activities that muddy vision or are not related to the vision are acted upon daily. There is no timeframe to get everyone out of the theater, or to the intermission or commercial break. Life can drag on with all its complications and diversions. Vision can get lost.
Focus Can Clarify Your Vision
Have you ever seen those visual puzzles that ask, “What do you see in this picture?” I always chuckle at what we must look like going through the facial gymnastics while trying to identify the hidden shape. Our heads turn, our eyes squint, and our pupils dilate as they trying to capture the hidden image in the picture. It might be Jesus or the facial profile of an old woman. But the exercise may not be futile.
Sailors at sea spend a great deal of time looking at the horizon, trying to see the beginning shape of things. In fact, we are taught the shape of various ships by looking at silhouettes on flash cards. We do this so that if and when we spot these ships, we are careful to avoid colliding with them. Accidents at sea can happen very quickly, and can be difficult to avoid unless actions are taken early enough on to steer clear of oncoming ships and other obstacles.
Navy ships are the only moving platform that I know of that keeps lookouts on watch 24/7. There is always one lookout at the front of the ship and one at the back. These are called the bow and stern respectively. In addition, there are usually one or more stationed higher up on both sides, as well as on the bridge. In fact, the entire bridge team usually has binoculars and spends considerable amount of time peering into the distance.
Being a lookout is one of the most important jobs aboard ships. It is usually not considered a full-time job but is part of a collateral duty that junior enlisted sailors must assume as part of their underway watch station. The young sailors who have performed best by spotting things early are usually assigned to critical teams underway. Various evolutions, such as sailing into port, require the very best sailors in all critical positions. On naval ships this particular evolution is called “sea and anchor detail.” The team chosen for this detail is usually sent to their stations long before the ship enters port. The lookouts’ responsibility, beyond spotting ships, boats, and other obstacles, is to spot familiar land formations, buoys, and other navigational aids so that the ship can be sailed into port safely and efficiently. These lookouts have demonstrated a high degree of ability to focus, to block out all distractions, and to concentrate on what they are seeing. This ability has saved many a ship and the sailors onboard.
Focusing on your vision requires this same intense ability to concentrate. You must learn to see Jesus in the picture and block out the old woman. Every manner of distraction will be thrown at you as you try to focus. Your ability and willingness to concentrate will be challenged. How many times have we all found ourselves listening to someone talk about a very important issue and recognized that our minds were wandering as we thought about getting gas on the way home, or picking up coffee creamer at the grocery store so that we could enjoy our morning coffee the way we liked it prepared? We must remain attentive, giving important things in life our complete focus and commitment.
Stop Trying to Multitask
So many well-meaning people have told us that multitasking is a great skill. When we are able to do this, we can be more efficient, more productive, and more promotable. Generations X, Y, Z, and AO (always on), are touted as masters of multitasking. We older adults have watched as they did their homework, watched television on their computers, and texted on their smart phones, all at the same time. We assumed that they were doing these tasks with some degree of proficiency. Unfortunately, recent research has shown that this is incorrect. One task, like texting with friends, will take preference over another task. These other tasks are often relegated to level where these young people do just enough to get a passing grade or gain some general sense of what happened in the episode. The deep thinking, the intense focusing is nonexistent.
When we are multitasking, we are not really giving any of our tasks our complete focus. The bombardment to our senses in a multitasking environment does not allow us to see with clarity our goals or the best way to achieve them. We find ourselves settling on the process of achievement that engages the least amount of energy, information, and perspective. Unfortunately, because of this, the results are always less than stellar. We simply accept the consequences and learn to be satisfied with this. What suffers is our vision. Without focus, our vision can mutate into something that we never intended it to be. Ultimately, we never achieve the vision that we longed for and never fulfill our purpose in life.
It takes deliberate practice to tune out the distractions and tune into accomplishing the vision. The way to begin this is to embrace purpose in your life. Discover why you exist. What is your role in this world? What values will you live by? What boundaries will define your actions? Who will you allow and acknowledge joining you on this journey? For me, this last question helped me to define the others.
Questions to Consider
1.Recall a time when you acted on your instincts and were right in doing so.
2.What things during the day cause you to lose focus?
3.Do you try to multitask? If so, what things do you try to do simultaneously?