Vision To Life Blog

Ask Yourself This: Can You Fulfill Your Vision in Life Late in Life?

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Mon, 12 May 2008 23:29:00 +0000

Not every career building visionary can have the privilege of bringing their vision to life when they are young and spry. Whether you are a 17-year-old student just about to start your career or a 64-year-old journeyman on the verge of retirement, it is never too late to think about bringing your vision to life.

Career building goals can be formulated at any age, whether 13 or 30. What is important, however, is finding time to sit down and map out your career building goals. Building your career may take time, effort, and more than a bit of gumption, but – trust me – there’s nothing like mapping out your vision of life and career objectives in an organized manner.

Ask yourself the following questions about your vision in life:

1. What are my career building priorities? Will my vision in life sustain me throughout the day? Can I see myself working daily to bring this vision to life?
2. Does my vision in life match my personal life values? For example, if you are developing a Christian personal vision plan, will your career building efforts match your personal spiritual beliefs?
3. Can I bring my vision to life with my time and physical limitations? At the end of the day, building your career must be realistic. If you are 65 years old, perhaps formulating a vision in life that takes into account your age and time available would be best.

My book, “Bring Your Vision to Life,” provides further insight into the possibilities of developing a vision in life late in life. Click here for more information.

Ask Yourself This: How Do You React to Naysayers?

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Tue, 06 May 2008 06:44:00 +0000

Any career building visionary is bound to run into someone with a less-than-positive vision of life and career objectives. You know the type: their career building goals are always undergoing revamp; they can't bring their own vision to life because they can't get past their own negative attitudes; their Christian personal vision plan has run amok with delusions of grandeur far removed from Christ's own vision in life.

Having naysayers around can be both a good thing and a bad thing when it comes to building your career. Anyone's career building goals are bound to take a hit when someone comes around saying 'It won't work,' or 'I can see a thousand reasons why this isn't a good idea.' What happens next, however, is completely up to you. A negative attitude isn't necessarily a bad thing; if anything, it can be a boon to your career building efforts if you react to the feedback in a good and encouraging way.

Here are three questions to ask yourself when a naysayer comes a-callin':

1. Am I so passionately and emotionally connected to my vision in life that this person's thoughts, which are completely logical and sensible, offend me to the point that I do not want to hear him or her out?

2. Do I trust this person enough to place value in her or his assessment of my career building efforts?

3. Is my vision in life so dramatically different from his or hers that he or she sees only negative things for me, and therefore, her or his comments should be taken by me with a pillar of salt?

A good, healthy attitude towards one's vision of life and career objectives is a good thing. Click here to read about how my book, Bring Your Vision to Life, can help the career building visionary develop a healthier attitude towards naysayers.

career building | building your career | vision to life | career building goals | vision of life and career objectives | vision in life | Christian personal vision plan

Friday Four: Four Things You Can Do to Bring God Into Your Vision

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Sat, 03 May 2008 00:27:00 +0000

Any career building visionary who takes God seriously is well on the right path to bringing his vision to life. A Christian personal vision plan is a good thing to have when building your career, because it takes God's will into full account. If you are a Christian working on your career building goals, here are four things you can do to involve God in your vision:

1. Work on your relationship with God. Working on your Christian personal vision plan will mean working on your relationship with God. Spend time with Him regularly and daily, reading His word and cultivating that relationship. Your vision of life and career objectives will change dramatically as you get more in tune with His career building goals for you.

2. Involve God in your vision actions. As you bring your vision to life, you can believe God will give you insight and ideas. He will open doors and windows, and great opportunities will be yours for the taking.

3. Keep track of your efforts. Record your career building efforts. Building your career means keeping stock of what you've done. Oftentimes, God will provide direction that is as clear as day; other times, however, you're going to have to discern His will for you, and if you make mistakes, keeping a record of what you've gone through will help you - and other career building visionaries in the future - not make those mistakes again.

4. Forgive yourself. Just as Jesus forgave you, be ready to forgive yourself for the mistakes made while building your career. God is a forgiving God; you needn't be so hard on yourself.

For other ideas on how God can help you bring your vision to life, why not purchase a copy of my book, Bring Your Vision to Life? Click here for more details.

Visionary: Billy Graham

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Thu, 01 May 2008 00:25:00 +0000

Few career building visionaries following God's call have had as much success in bringing their vision to life as American evangelist Billy Graham. In a career that has spanned more than five decades, Graham's Billy Graham Ministries has fulfilled its vision in life and broadcast the Good News of God to an estimated two billion people in six continents.

Graham formed his vision in life early after graduating in 1940 from the Florida Bible Institute with a degree in Theology. His career building efforts started with that simultaneously, as he became pastor of the United Gospel Tabernacle while still in school.

In 1949, Graham's career building efforts took a serious upturn when he became a series of revival missions in Los Angeles. Shortly thereafter, William Randolph Hearst, news mogul, assisted Graham with media exposure, and Graham was soon a national figure. In 1954, his face graced the cover of TIME Magazine.

Graham's Christian personal vision plan spans more than just five decades. His career building goals have gone beyond the traditional reach of evangelistic ministry and revolutionized the way Christian ministries reach out. From Hour to Decision, Graham's weekly radio program, to several primetime television specials, Graham's many media arms establish the Word of God and encourage Christians worldwide. Five decades later, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has reached more than 2.3 billion people.

Ask Yourself This: How Connected is God to Your Vision in Life?

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:15:00 +0000

Career building visionaries striving to bring their vision to life would do well to consider the spiritual implications of their vision. Many times, a well-meaning visionary develops his or her career building goals without thinking about how his or her faith comes into the equation, and I believe that is a very dangerous thing to do.

Bringing your vision to life is going to take passion from deep within the gut, and that kind of passion for your vision in life is so much more powerful when your vision in life is in sync with God's vision in life for you.

When a vision in life is in sync with God's plans for you, there is a different electricity in the air as you work on your career building goals. A Christian personal vision plan, for instance, comes from meeting with God regularly; when you have a relationship with God that allows Him to speak into every area of your life, and you take His suggestions seriously, you know that He's going to bless your career building efforts significantly.

Another benefit of connecting God to your vision in life is the great amount of insight He's going to give you in your field of expertise. Often, during the career building process, many people bringing their vision to life forge ahead without really delving into the nitty-gritty. God-given insight can help you avoid all these potential problems.

To learn more about how God can help you bring your vision to life, why not click here to read about how my book Bring Your Vision to Life can help bring your career building efforts to new heights?

Friday Four: Four Reasons Why Passion is Important to Your Vision in Life

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 03:12:00 +0000

A vision in life needs passion if it is going to be brought to fruition by any career building visionary. If you are going to go through life day in and day out bringing your vision to life, it would be best to have passion for that life vision. You need to feel that vision in life in your gut. You need to love what you are doing, because when you love your vision in life, when you have passion for it, great things are guaranteed to come your way.

Here are four reasons why passion is important to your vision in life:

1. Passion is infectious. I've said time and time again that bringing your vision to life will need help from other people. If you have passion, it will be easier for others to empathize with you and understand where you are coming from.
2. Passion is a great motivator. Passion gives that extra jolt of energy for you to bring your vision to life. When you are passionate about your vision in life, that passion becomes ingrained in your psyche, and it's easier to get up in the mornings knowing where you're headed and what you're out to accomplish.
3. Passion gets you through the downside. Passion provides a great dose of inspiration when things do not quite go your way. There will always be bumps along the road when your career building efforts get momentarily derailed, but passion will help you get up again.
4. Passion will keep your vision fresh. When you have passion for your vision in life, it makes you constantly return to it and treat it well. You can return to your vision in life, you can look at it with new, fresh eyes, and passion will give you the push you need to make it happen.

Visionary: Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:43:00 +0000

Career building visionaries can learn a thing or two about dedication to one's vision from Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, a senator who was instrumental in the history of his country, the Philippines, and bringing it to the next phase of its development, even if he wasn't around to witness it himself.

Ninoy Aquino developed his vision in life - to see a prosperous Philippines - early. Born to a prosperous landed family, Aquino was an exemplary student whose tertiary education was interrupted by a journalist stint in Korea for the Manila Times, a popular Philippine newspaper. Aquino's career building goals soon started to revolve around public service, as he entered government service for then-president Ramon Magsaysay. Soon, he was a noted peacemaker who sped along the government's peace process.

The career building efforts of Aquino came to a head when he became, at 34, the youngest-elected senator in history. After several damaging "exposes" at the expense of his spouse, incumbent Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos singled Aquino out as his most dangerous political threat. In 1971, Marcos declared martial law, and Aquino, after temporary incarceration, fled the country in political exile.

When Aquino decided to return to the Philippines, many attempted to dissuade him. He was quoted as saying, "if it's my fate to die by an assassin's bullet, so be it." The return to the Philippines of the career building visionary was one watched closely by the international press. Upon his exit from the airplane flying him home, he was gunned down by an assassin's bullet.

Even if Aquino didn't see his vision to life through to completion, his widow, Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, eventually became president of the Philippines after the ouster of President Ferdinand Marcos through the vaunted People Power Revolution that has come to characterize the democratic process in the Philippines.

Ask Yourself This: Are You Willing to Die for Your Vision?

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 08:55:00 +0000

It's the ultimate question: is there something for which you feel so passionately that you are willing to die for it?

Some career building visionaries give up on bringing their vision to life when they encounter some difficult moments the course of their work. A few are lucky because their Christian personal vision plans are motivated by faith and hope; others, unfortunately, aren't as driven because they have not internalized their vision in life.

What does it mean to internalize your vision in life?

To internalize your vision in life is to feel so passionately for your life vision that you'd be willing to die to see it happen. To internalize your vision is to see it and its fruition as something bigger than yourself, and to know that your work towards it, every career building goal, every step of the way, is worth the effort.

For many people, including Jesus Christ, there is no greater sign of love than for a person to lay down his life for his friends (Jn 15:13). If a person can willingly give up his life for another's, we can assume it is so because he considers his friend's life more valuable than his own.

Have you internalized your vision in life? Do you feel so strongly about your vision in life and bringing your vision to life that you'd be willing to die for it? If not, why not take a look at my book, Bringing Your Vision to Life?

Friday Four: Four Reasons Why A Clear Vision is Important to World Change

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 07:08:00 +0000

If your career building goals are a little more lofty than, say, 'make a million dollars then retire,' you may need a little more than a good battle plan. You are going to have to go into the fray with a clear-cut vision. Here are four reasons why having a clear cut vision is absolutely necessary if you want to change the world.

1. Vision unites people. A vision in life that is clear and concise, one that aims to do something for the greater good of the majority, will unite people of different backgrounds and social classes. As a career building goal, make it your point to develop a vision of life and career objectives that speaks to a great number of people about the greater good.

2. Vision inspires and motivates people. If you are the career building type who believes that man is innately good, then a vision in life that aims to change the world will inspire people. A vision in life that is focused on social improvement will move people to action, which is the kind of career building effort that you want.

3. Vision focuses people. Proverbs 29:18 says "without vision, the people perish." When career building efforts are centered on a vision, people move with focus and direction. It is clear where they are headed, and they know how to get there.

4. Vision challenges the faith of people. When people work towards a vision in life, it challenges their faith. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the evidence of things not seen." When a vision in life is set, it gives people something tangible to work for, yet at the same time, it challenges them to "see" how they'll actually make the end result of their vision a tangible reality.

If you'd like to get started on a vision in life that will change the world, click here.

Visionary: Mother Teresa

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 06:34:00 +0000

Few career building visionaries have changed the world quite like Mother Teresa. A Roman Catholic nun born in Albania, Mother Teresa was revered as a humanitarian whose career building apex, the Missionaries of Charity, administered to the sick, orphaned, poor and dying originally in Calcutta, India, and spreading throughout the world.

In 1946, after years at the Sisters of Loreto convent in Darjeeling, Mother Teresa received what she believed to be the call of the Lord to serve outside of the convent. Her missionary work began in 1948 with her first career building efforts devoted to a school in Motijhil. Shortly afterward, she began to tend the needs of the poor, career building efforts that caught the attention of the Indian Prime Minister.

Teresa, who by this time was called Mother Teresa by those whom she served, received permission to start the congregation that would become the Missionaries of Charity. The vision in life of this organization was to care for "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone."

Mother Teresa opened many institutions for the destitute, including the Kalighat Home of the Pure Heart; the Shanti Nagar (City of Peace), a home for lepers, and the Nirmala Shishu Bhavan, the Children's Home of the Immaculate Heart, a haven for orphans and homeless youth.

By 1996, she was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her vision in life and career building humanitarian efforts. At the time of her death, the Missionaries of Charity operated 610 missions in 123 countries, including hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counseling programs, orphanages, and schools.

Ask Yourself This: Will Your Vision Change the World?

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:07:00 +0000

One thing I've learned in my many years of helping others bring their visions to life is this: the visionaries who center their career building goals on something much greater than themselves end up being so much more satisfied with themselves and the daily career building efforts they make towards making their vision of life and career opportunities realities into which they can sink their teeth.

Not everyone can be a Martin Luther King or a Jesus Christ, someone whose career building legacy literally changes the courses of millions. However, the opportunities to make a difference in so many countless lives are, well, just as countless, and when it comes to building your career, a vision that changes the world, a Christian personal vision plan for many of us, a vision that stretches far and wide is certainly a vision worth bringing to life.

If a career building visionary like you focuses his or her time and effort in helping make the world a better place, there should be no reason why an agent of positive change like you should not be able to succeed. Positivity attracts positivity.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself about yourself. Think about what your answers mean in context of your bringing your vision to life:

1. Are your career building goals centered around reaching beyond your community or country?

2. Are your vision in life and career opportunities readily adaptable to the changing times?

3. Is it easy to share your vision in life with others, and do these others react to your vision in a manner that encourages you?

My book, Bringing Your Vision to Life, offers a wide range of suggestions for, as well as stories of, people who change the world every day. For more information, click here.

Friday Four: Four Tips to Help You Communicate Your Vision

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 01:23:00 +0000

Building your career can be made significantly easier when you make a greater, more concerted effort to communicate better. Your vision in life deserves that kind of attention and dedication to detail, and when you are able to express yourself in a clear and confident manner, your career building goals are closer to getting achieved easier and better than you ever thought possible.

Here are four tips to help you communicate your vision in life clearer and more concisely than ever before:

1. Think about what you would like to say. Career building mistakes are often made when a person says something he didn't run through his head before it exited his mouth. Bring your vision to life by planning ahead and remembering the bottom line of your vision before you attempt to communicate it to someone else.

2. Stop talking... every so often. Building your career becomes smoother when you remember that people's attention spans only run so long. If you want to communicate better, pause every so often to give the other person a chance to say something. It's the polite thing to do, and every Christian personal vision plan allows for another person to say his or her piece on your vision in life.

3. Stay focused on one major point. If you start talking about your career building goals and vision in life right away, state your main point from the get-go. Doing this actually gives you a clearer direction for your conversation, and allows you the chance to explain your thoughts and point of view. At the end of your conversation, you can return to that point, or summarize any thoughts and decisions that may hae been made along the way.

4. Watch what you're saying but not saying. Many visionaries have had career building disasters with what comes out of their mouths, but you also have to be careful with what you're not saying with your body. Body language is a very important thing to control; you can come across hostile or aggressive with your gestures and facial expressions.

Any career building decision can be made better with communication skills, many of which are discussed in my book, Bringing Your Vision to Life. Give yourself the opportunity to bring your own vision to life with more information here.

Visionary: Alexander Graham Bell

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:49:00 +0000

When it comes to communication and vision, career building visionaries can learn much from the passion of famous inventor Alexander Graham Bell, who is widely credited with the invention of the device that has since come to be known as the telephone. Bell devoted his vision in life and all career building goals to the development of a device that would ease communication, stemming from his early childhood experiences with a mother growing deaf.

Alexander Graham Bell was a sensitive child who showed immense range and creativity. A heart and talent for music, art, and poetry resulted in a wide range of skills, including piano playing and voice mimicry with comedic results. When Bell was 12, his mother began to lose her hearing, and he developed a finger language that allowed him to communicate to her the conversations around her.

Bell's career building moment - that eureka! moment - came when he developed a technique of speaking in clear, modulated tones that allowed his mother to hear him with relative clarity. He did this by speaking directly into his mother's forehead. This simple communicative strategy allowed him special insight into the world of acoustics and elocution. Bell's father helped develop his proficiency by teaching him how to identify symbols and their accompanying sounds.

Alexander Graham Bell's efforts as a visionary are noteworthy for two particular reasons. First, Bell's vision in life was shaped largely by experiences in his personal life that clearly drove him with a passion. The fact that his mother, and later on, his wife, Mabel Hubbard, were deaf made him even more determined to find a way to help them communicate. Second, his career building efforts were so clearly defined, his career building goals so cut in stone, that it was easy for him to focus. As we all know, the way we communicate now is made so much easier thanks to the way that Bell enabled us to communicate, and that makes all the difference.

Ask Yourself This: How Important are Communications Skills to Your Vision?

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:20:00 +0000

Have you ever tried to communicate your vision to life to others and found it difficult to express what you have in mind? Rest assured you're not alone. Many a career building visionary has found communicating his vision in life difficult, and this boils down to the message you're trying to convey and the way you're communicating your message.

Building your career depends greatly on how well you communicate with others. We have been taught since early childhood how to speak, but we know that speaking and communicating are two separate things. Any vision in life should take into account being able to communicate effectively.

Exactly how important are communication skills to building your career and bringing your vision to life? Think essential. Think vital. Think non-negotiable.

Communication skills are important to the career building visionary because these skills will determine how effectively you will be able to bring your vision to life. Consider it a career building goal to learn how to communicate verbally and non-verbally. Your choice of language when talking to others, as well as your non-verbal cues, greatly affect how you will be perceived by others.

Interpersonal relationships are important, as is position. Communicating with a superior, for instance, is quite different from communicating with a colleague or subordinate. Cultural differences play a role, too. If your vision in life involves taking something to the global arena, it is vital that your career building goals respect the myriad unique traits of various cultures.

Career building visionaries will find the content in my book, Bringing Your Vision to Life, quite useful in terms of building confidence and the right communication skills. For more information, click here.

Friday Four: Four Reasons Why Thinking About the Next Generation Is So Important

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 02:47:00 +0000

Career building goals aside, there are many good reasons to think about the next generation.

1. Building your career on the next generation affects the way you do business today. Having a vision in life that takes into account the welfare of the next generation affords the social entrepreneur a greater awareness of how important it is to be ethical in one's current business dealings. If your vision in life is geared on making things better for the next generation, you can bet your career building goals will be centered on values that you intend to pass on to the men and women who will help bring your vision of life and career objectives to glorious fruition.

2. Leaving a legacy becomes so much personal. Oftentimes, a vision in life becomes clearer when you focus on the end result. In the course of bringing your vision to life, if you can see the future generations as they are now, you can find so much more motivation in making your vision a reality. A Christian personal vision plan, for instance, takes into account winning souls for Jesus Christ; if your values are in sync with your vision in life, the passion and self-motivation becomes so much more personal, and thus, your vision becomes easier to achieve.

3. It gives you a greater sense of purpose. Career building is so much more relevant when the visionary working towards the vision in life does it for the sake of purpose. Anyone can work towards starting a company; not everyone can boast of starting a company designed specifically, for instance, to raise funds for a solution for cancer.

4. The next generation can help you today. Many say the enthusiasm and passion of youth is something unequalled by men of age and experience. Harness the potential of these future visionaries and bring your vision to life through their eyes and with their experience!

My book, Bring Your Vision to life, gives several ideas on developing a vision that takes the future of the next generation into passionate and full consideration. Click here for more details.

Visionary: Anita Roddick

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 11:30:00 +0000

Career building visionaries can learn a thing or two about planning ahead from Dame Anita Roddick, the founder of famed beauty product retailer The Body Shop. Roddick’s vision in life leaned towards ethical consumerism, where fair global trade and ingredients untested on animals became standard operating procedure. It was a business operation that would change the world.

Roddick's vision in life to shape the world's cosmetics industry was no spur-of-the-moment decision. Her career building goals were clear even at a young age, with the feisty Brit getting herself involved with environmental and social issues. Her vision in life involved activism and partnership with many organizations that supported her goals, including Greenpeace and The Big Issue. Roddick was so concerned with the future impact of her business endeavors that she even founded a charitable institution called Children on the Edge; the purpose of the organization was to help disadvantaged children in Eastern Europe and Asia.

Roddick's career building moment came when she opened her first The Body Shop. By 1991, Roddick's The Body Shop had over 700 branches worldwide, and she was awarded the Award for Development Initiative by the World Vision Awards; 13 years later, The Body Shop had almost tripled that number and served more than 77 million consumers worldwide.

Central to the success of her vision in life was the desire to see the world a better place years down the road. To its credit, The Body Shop has changed the way fair markets operate, and impacted in immeasurable ways the economies of the third-world nations with which it does business. Further cementing her vision to change the world through environmental activism and fair and equitable global trade, Roddick began to channel her resources, worth almost US$104 million, to various institutions and charities.

Ask Yourself This: Have You Ever Thought About 2028?

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:50:00 +0000

Career building visionaries in the process of bringing their vision to life are driven by one thing: a passionate concern for the future. Building your career requires the kind of motivation that comes from deep within, and for a lot of successful visionaries, that motivation is provided by their vision in life of a better world for their children and humanity in general.

Like many social entrepreneurs, if building your career is first in your mind, you're going to have to mind what you put first. Many a great vision in life has always put the well-being of others, and the person's vision in life and career objectives are focused on bring to reality a concept that will bless others ahead of themselves.

With the world becoming smaller and smaller, career building has actually become a little easier. By creating and working on a vision in life that impacts the world on a global scale, social entrepreneurs and visionaries like you can make a positive impact that can change the world as we know it.

Some career building individuals think about what they are to do twenty minutes later. Others dwell on their Christian personal vision plan twenty days from now. Yet others focus their career building efforts on results that show twenty weeks down the road. And yet others push to see the fruits of their twenty months into the future. Successful career building visionaries see the impact of their hard work in 20 years.

What about you? Are you thinking about 2028?

Friday Four: Four Tips to Help You Weather Tough Times

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:29:00 +0000

Like Boy Scouts, career building visionaries are always prepared. Unlike Boy Scouts, however, most people bringing their vision to life don't necessarily have the benefit of hindsight until well into their career building efforts. Most crises that arise and threaten to derail your career building efforts towards bringing your vision in life and career objectives to fruition, after all, don't make themselves known until you're knee-deep in them.

That's the nature of a crisis, and, yes, it can be difficult to deal with. However, people who have passion for their visions in life, however, don't let crises get in their way. They look at these events as challenges and opportunities to tap.

If you aren't one of these visionaries, fret not. Here are four tips on keeping you focused on bringing your vision to life.

1. Prepare yourself for the road ahead. Any plan to bring your vision to life should always take into consideration emotional, spiritual, and sometimes even physical preparation. Bringing your vision to life is not going to be easy, so if you ready yourself inside and out, you prepare yourself much better for the rough times ahead.

2. Hone your skills and sharpen your tools. No soldier goes into battle without the proper training and weapons, yes? If your vision in life involves something that you feel you need preparation for, do not hesitate to pursue additional education to ensure you're ready and capable to meet the requirements of bringing your vision to life.

3. Have a solid support system in place. No career building professional is an island. When you have someone you trust on hand, someone who is ready to give you his personal or professional opinion about decisions you need to make, you ease the burden and accountability of bringing your vision to life, just a little bit.

4. The world doesn't end when you stumble. Career building goals will never be met in a day. If you stumble, the important thing is to get up. Don't punish yourself if certain moves weren't necessarily the right ones. There will always be opportunities to make up for those moves.

My book Bring Your Vision to Life prepares you significantly for the tough times ahead as you work towards making this world a better one. Click here to learn more about my book.

Visionary: Henri Dunant

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:09:00 +0000

You don’t need to look too far to formulate a vision in life. Look at what is happening around you, and seek to tap into something that strikes your fancy. When you are so passionate about your vision in life, building your career takes place naturally.

Sometimes, though, a vision in life can take place on a spur of the moment. Reacting a crisis, the way that Henri Dunant, founder of the organization that would become the Red Cross, did, can spell the difference between a successful but otherwise worldweary career or a visionary legacy that can last forever.

Henri Dunant was born in 1828 to a wealthy family that prized social work. After initial career building efforts that he set for himself as a banker did not prosper, Dunant attempted to build a career in Algeria as a wheat mill operator, but he needed the approval of Emperor Napoleon III for documents needed to operate it. Upon travel to Italy, where the emperor was commanding troops fighting the Austrian army, he was taken aback by the sheer number of dead and dying at the battle of Solferino.

Dunant quickly brought a new vision to life by responding to the grisly crisis. He organized the townsfolk around the area to treating the wounded, regardless of nationality. Shortly thereafter, he wrote a book about his experiences, a career-building tome titled A Memory of Solferino. The book led to the creation of the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, an organization that would soon be known to billions as the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Dunant’s vision of an organization that responded to crises led to the creation of an organization that has saved countless lives. The question is: if you are in such a crisis, can you respond with a vision greater than the crisis?

Ask Yourself This: How Fast Do You React to a Crisis?

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:33:00 +0000

All career building efforts are bound to run into a couple of bumps along the way. No vision in life, certainly a Christian personal vision plan, after all, is going to be flawless. The challenge facing many people bringing their vision to life is not merely the anticipation of the challenges, but the quality of the way they react to these challenges.

Career building goals, as a matter of fact, can benefit from the sheer fact you react to a crisis and call it by a different name. It says a lot about your vision in life when you call a problem by a different name, like ‘challenge.’ Or ‘opportunity.’ When you look at a crisis differently, when there is no fear of potential stumbling blocks, and when you react to a situation with grace and aplomb, well, people really sit up and take notice.

Are you the type of person who others can expect to run to in times of trouble?

The speed with which you react to a crisis is an excellent indication of the passion with which you treat your vision in life. Red Cross founder Henri Dunant, for instance, saw an immediate need during the world wars, a crisis that necessitated the creation of some kind of organization that would save lives, regardless of color and nationality. He saw a crisis and reacted quickly, because time was of the essence.

You may not see crises around you just at a particular time, but a crisis is exactly like that. It happens when people least expect it, and wreaks a great amount of damage. React to it with maturity, creativity, and confidence, and you’ve just put yourself further into the right frame of mind to your vision to life.

For more information on how crises can affect bringing your vision to life, as well as how to deal with these in a timely and calm manner, click here.

Friday Four: Four Tips to Make Bringing Your Vision to Life More Enjoyable

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:30:00 +0000

Building your career doesn't have to be painstakingly dull. The happiest people make bringing their vision to life much more enjoyable by employing a variety of strategies to make career building a heck of a lot more fun.

1. Work with people whose company you enjoy. Several studies have shown that career building goals and a Christian personal vision plan work so much more effectively when they are developed and brought to fruition by like-minded people who genuinely enjoy each other's company. So, if your career building objectives revolve around, say, doing something revolutionary in the field of toy-making, it certainly makes more sense to work with someone who enjoys making, designing, or working with toys.

2. Treat yourself to rewards every so often. The career building mentality has always been, push-push-push. What most people don't realize when it comes to bringing one's vision in life to reality, is that there really should be some rewards structure for milestones reached.
Whatever rocks your boat, as long as it is reasonable, shouldn't be denied you; after all, no one ever said bringing your vision to life had to happen at the expense of your happiness... or sanity.

3. Give yourself a break. How different are breaks from rewards? Immensely! While rewards are great motivational tools for the career building visionary, breaks offer you the opportunity to recharge, to step away from all the career building, and to examine your vision in life from a fresh perspective. It also makes getting back to work a lot more motivating.

4. Revel in the bloopers. People - even career building ones - make mistakes. If you do, don't get bogged down by the hiccup. Instead, use it as motivation to tweak the process to prevent future slip-ups. Rome wasn't built in a day, and a fire certainly won't burn it down in a day. Okay, maybe it will, but you know God is a God of second chances.

My book, Bring Your Vision to Life, contains a lot of information on how to really get the most out of your vision-building, as well as some ideas on how it can be more enjoyable. Click here for more information.

Visionary: Walt Disney

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 01:30:00 +0000

Fewer visionaries have brought as much fun and enjoyment to the world as Walt Disney, whose vision in life and career building efforts have resulted in countless cartoons and films that have amassed billions of dollars worldwide. In bringing his vision to life, Disney became one of the most influential men in the history of entertainment.

When it comes to building your career, the life of Walt Disney is a great template. Disney followed his heart when he decided to pursue his love of motion pictures and the theater. He studied night courses at the Chicago Art Institute, becoming the cartoonist for the school's newspaper. He came a step closer to bringing his vision to life with his first job at the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio, where he met another artist, a cartoonist by the name of Ubbe Iwerks, with whom he started an art business.

Disney soon set out to fulfill his career objectives when he pooled his money with his brother to set up a cartoon studio in his uncle's garage. This was the start of the rapid expansion of his career building efforts: a series of shorts - Alice Comedies, based on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland - became successful. After the Alice shorts ran their course, Disney and Iwerks created a character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and then a character named Mortimer Mouse, who eventually was renamed Mickey Mouse. The rest, as they say, is history.

Disney was legendary for enjoying the life he led, and it paid off in a big way. He was a visionary in entertainment and animation: to this day, his career building efforts are legendary. He holds the record for being the only man with most Academy Award nominations (64) and winds (26). He’s won seven Emmy Awards, and his company grosses more than US$35billion annually, mostly from merchandise and the famous Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort theme parks in the United States, France, Japan and China.

What did Disney do that was so amazing? He centered his vision on entertainment, and enjoying bringing that vision to life.

Ask Yourself This: How Much Do You Enjoy Bringing Your Vision to Life?

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 02:32:00 +0000

Career building doesn't have to be difficult. Building your career may take time and effort, but it certainly doesn't have to be taxing, and it shouldn't have to be boring.

The most exciting thing about bringing your vision to life is that it agrees with you. If you believe in your vision in life, if you believe that this is what you were put on Earth to do, then whatever career building goals you set out for yourself, will all be relatively easy for you to do because your motivation comes from within!

Many career building professionals in the IT industry, for instance, dream of one day ending up at Google. What is so special about Google? Google seeks to 'organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.' All the career building men and women have internalized this vision and work towards a variety of things aimed at meeting that one goal. In return, of course, Google provides an amazing work environment for its employees. How's that for career building motivation?

A Christian personal vision plan, on the other hand, always has in its center the desire to honor God. If building your career around Matthew 28, which tells Christians to go forth and make disciples in the name of Jesus Christ, is something you want to do, the kind of motivation that comes from inside (and from God) can be very strong... and very satisfying.

Whatever your vision in life may be, building your career around something that is enjoyable for you may be one of the best decisions you'll ever make. My book, Bring Your Vision to Life, is full of ideas on how to have a great time while building for yourself a lasting legacy. For more information, click here.

Friday Four: Four Reasons Why Breaking Status Quo Works

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 02:39:00 +0000

Career building goals, when set, often don't make room for rocking the boat. History, however, is filled with the stories of visionaries whose desire to bring their vision to life was so strong, they literally changed the world. If your vision in life and career opportunities involve making a significant change in the way things are currently being done, it may help to remember that building your career may involve taking a few risks and challenging - respectfully, admittedly - the status quo.

Here are four reasons why breaking the status quo can work:

1. If done respectfully, breaking status quo shows your bosses you may have something extra. Career building moves that go against the flow can sometimes be seen as insubordination; however, it can also be interpreted as foresight. Visionaries bringing their visions to life will sometimes have to go against the grain, but if you sell your idea well, and introduce the good points, you may win allies over to your cause easier than you think.

2. Breaking status quo can show strength of character - or at least strong belief in one's personal values. When one breaks status quo in defense of one's vision in life, one is saying, I believe in this so much, I am willing to take large risks for that. And this shows strength of character.

3. Breaking status quo shows you can roll with the punches. Oftentimes, a career building move will require a great change that won't necessarily go to your liking at first. Bringing your vision to life isn't easy, after all. However, if you break status quo and it doesn't go well, and you handle the results with grace and aplomb, that can be a plus in your favor after all.

4. Breaking status quo is better than stagnation. Think about it: when it comes to career building, stagnation is the most terrible thing that can happen to you. No visionary ever succeeded in bring his vision of life and career objectives to life without challenging himself to go beyond the comfortable.

My book Bring Your Vision to Life contains several ideas on how you can challenge status quo in good and positive ways. For more information, click here.

Visionary: Rosa L. Parks

noreply@blogger.com (Name) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 08:02:00 +0000

One woman who brought her vision to life, living out her values in the process of changing the United States as we know it today, was Rosa L. Parks.

Parks is best known for her career building move of refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1900, the city had passed a law that allowed bus conductors to segregate passengers by race. Parks had a vision in life where colored Americans would be accorded the same civil rights given Caucasian Americans, and, true to her vision in life, she stayed put.

The bus driver had her arrested, which led to the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott, which carried on for almost 400 days and severely damaged the bus industry of that city, 75% of which was patronized by colored Americans. Parks said in a radio interview a few months after her arrest that her move not to vacate her seat was motivated by a desire to "know for once and for all what rights [she] had as a human being and a citizen of Montgomery, Alabama."

Parks' career building move led to her permanent fixture as a secretary at one of the United States' more prominent congressmen's offices. More importantly, it served to cement the vision in life and career opportunities of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a man whose own vision in life changed the United States forever.