Have you ever wondered why two people will both learn “whatever you can capture in your mind you can achieve” and both capture a vision for their futures? Then one will go on to achieve what they have envisioned and the other will only look back after his life with despair and remember the plans he had that never came to pass.
What separates the dreamer from the one who goes on to achieve his dream?
Myles Munroe revealed the secret that has helped him and many others fulfill their visions in his book, Principles and Power of Vision. Read my summary of Principles and Power of Vision by Dr. Myles Munroe.
Here are 10 simple steps that anyone, from any place, can practice to turn their visions into reality.
How To Achieve Your Vision by Dr. Myles Munroe
1. Identify your vision
This is almost just logical for everyone; you cannot arrive at a future you cannot see. The first step to fulfilling your vision is to capture that vision. When you don’t know where you are going, everywhere will look like it.
Your vision for your life should be something that represents your deepest desires and gives you the most feeling of fulfillment. It should be those dreams that never leave your heart, what you are passionate about, and what you would do if there was no possibility of failure. Your vision should be your individual contribution to humanity.
Can’t find where you fit? Read this ultimate guide to finding where you fit.
2. Clarify your vision
Many assume they know where they are going (they have visions for their lives), but if your vision isn’t clear enough, missing it is almost natural. For you to do any meaningful activity that will lead to the achievement of your vision, you need to fully understand what the vision is and what it requires for fulfillment.
For instance, you might have all the ingredients for baking cake, but if you don’t understand exactly what it is you want, you might end up baking bread, since it’s almost the same ingredients. A clear definition and understanding of what you want will determine how you mix the ingredients to get your desired result.
3. Refine your vision
Visions come in crude forms. Because your level of exposure determines what your mind can grasp, if you aren’t exposed to the realities that exist around you, you might get visions that can’t be practically fulfilled in your environment or context.
For every vision you receive, you must sit back to “envision” how it can be applied to your context. How can your vision of starting a library be realized in a generation where everyone is going digitalized? What adjustments can you make to make that vision relevant to your specific generation? These kinds of questions will help you refine your vision.
4. Document your vision
Study has shown that people who document their goals or visions are 42 times more likely to achieve them than those who don’t have written down goals and visions. Writing your goals helps you know what the thoughts on your mind really are when you try to turn the pictures into words.
Apart from the clarity you get, writing helps you remember better, and even when you forget, you have an ‘external storage’ you can easily go back to. The Forgetfulness Curve reveals that we naturally forget 70% of all we hear by 24 hours and 90% by 1 week. If you don’t write down your vision (that you are meant to pursue for your lifetime), you no longer have what to fulfill or pursue after one week.
God, the giver of vision, commands that we “write the vision”
Read this: How To Write Your Vision For Your Life by Dr. Myles Munroe
5. Articulate your vision
This is taking your documentation even further. Not just writing the vision, but now, breaking it into simple actionable steps. Articulating your vision requires you to include time-frames for achievements, milestones that will be reached, and requirements needed for achieving them.
You can also call articulation planning. This is where you come up with a blueprint of how you can move from where you are to where you should be (the fulfillment of that vision). There is no achievement without a plan.
Your vision should be broken into goals– SMART goals. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound goals.
6. Communicate your vision
Visions are not created to be fulfilled by just an individual. You might have received your vision alone, but you can’t achieve it in isolation. For you to empower the right team that will truly contribute to the fulfillment of your vision, you must communicate the vision to them.
Take them through the process of identification, clarification, and articulation
the same way you did for yourself. Let them truly “see” the vision you are seeing; that’s the only way they can give in all the resources they possess towards the fulfillment of that vision.If no one sees the vision except you, you
will have to continually prompt them on what to do, or call them back from taking wrong steps which will slow down or totally hinder achievement.