When Your Vision Gets Blurry.

I was blessed with some pretty good genes.  I have Strait teeth, a decent head of hair and family on both sides who stay pretty healthy till late in life.  But my eyesight has always been abnormally good and the last time it was tested it was 20/12.  My vision in the natural world is clear and defined but what I am talking about is the other kind of vision.  That metaphorical vision of how we see ourselves and our passions, the things we see ourselves accomplishing and the path to get there.

If you have not guessed by now, I like metaphors.  Complicated things seem clearer to me when I turn them into something else and so you will just have to come along for the ride if you want to find out where we are going.  Speaking of life, metaphors and rides…

If there was a chart on the wall at the DMV of life I am pretty sure my “life driving license” would come with some restrictions.  There are times when the vision for where I am going and who I am is crystal clear but most of us come to a point where our vision gets blurry. How do we move forward when we can’t see where we are going? This becomes an all-consuming question for most everyone at some point in their journey.  

Most people just pull the car over on the side of the road and wait for the things to get clearer.  Letting my mind imagine people as cars I see a vision that haunts me.   Post apocalyptic freeways littered with the stalled out lives of people who just pulled over to the side and decided not move forward. Some of them are covered in rust and look like they will never move again. Others are idling with engines revving and looking for a moment to merge.  They all lost their vision, they all came to a stop and most will never start moving again.  

Maybe the best advice I ever heard on loosing your direction in life was “Its almost impossible to turn a parked car. Keep moving, even if it is the wrong direction, you can turn around once you get going.”

Then there are the brave and the stupid, with pedal pushing floorboard.  A few lucky souls will bull their way through life like this, but most of them end up in a fireball that causes lots of casualties.

There is only one smart thing to do when you lose your vision for life. Get right on the bumper of someone who knows where the hell they are going.

This metaphor is on empty but the idea has a lot of tread.

Helping someone else achieve their vision is a worthy endeavor at any time.  But working towards a passion, even someone else’s is a great way to remember what having a focused vision feels like. There is also the benefit of being around people who are excited about something.  The positives to just being in the room with people who are passionate about something are amazing.

 Give everything you have to someone else’s dream and sooner or later that vague idea of yours will crystalize into a vision and you will have a network of people excited about seeing it with you.