The Meaning of Vision and Goals

Mountain range photo

 

Conducted a workshop this weekend for a company around vision and goals.  It was a great group to work with.  I was truly honored to leave my imprint on their management team.

I got to thinking this morning about why vision is a necessary part of goal setting.  The formula goes something like this:

Vision is the why and what, while goals are the how.

It’salso important to rememberber that vision develops over time (Thank you, Rick and Terry).  The old Polaroid camera can be a great object lesson here.

The Toll Road of Reinvention

Spoke to a friend last week who told me about a man of fifty-seven.  A typical tale for a corporate soldier in America today.  He's tired, bored and wonders where the time went.

The financial crisis happening here and around the world is taking a toll on investment accounts, retirement accounts and faith (if we still have that) in how our governments work.  But what about the man, or woman, of fifty-seven who sees only few options left (no, the answer is not held in the mind of Obama or McCain)?

I have written before about the toll that ten, twenty or thirty years of poor leadership can have on followers.  Now we're beginning to see the shift economically, which usually is the first crisis before the other shift can happen.  That shift is where people have to discover/rediscover who they really are, and it doesn't happen without a crisis.

The way up is the way down.

As a follower of Jesus Christ, I don't get as bent out of shape by crisis.  He wrote the story, I live it out.  A beautiful, tragic, happy, fluid, exciting epic with my name on it.  After forty-two years, I've seen and experienced so many crises that I now see them as part of the plot.

Regardless of your age, you will face a crossroads where reinvention beckons.  You can ignore it, but just know that more of who you are and what you do will become gray.  If you accept the reinvention invitation you might find that the next chapter is ready to be played out.