What is on your heart right now that seems to be impossible? Write it down before reading the rest of today’s On-Purpose Post. At the end, you’ll continue with a brief and fun assignment.
A dream appears to be an impossibility. A vision is a dream with a plan of action to navigate the improbability.
Don’t start with why (contrary to Start with Why, the TED Talk and ensuing book by Simon Sinek). Instead, start with what’s before you. Most often that is the dream followed by an obvious (and perhaps reckless) next step into the wild blue yonder. Before you take that first step, consider the second, then the third step. This is the start of a half-baked plan with an awesome beginning.
For most people (who don’t know their 2-word purpose), their purpose is buried within them. Starting with why becomes a stopping point of discouragement. Even worse, they fill the gap with a hollow reason, such as the aspiring entrepreneur who wants “to make money” or “to be independent” or “to start something so I can feel good about myself.” Under pressure, these statements will fracture and fail in an ironic reinforcement that the dream truly was impossible.
Your purpose is your resilient why for tackling what others say is impossible and you differ. Your purpose is the energy source, the power to the liftoff to “putting a man on the moon and returning him safely.” While vision captivates minds, purpose captures hearts. It is the why that sparks the vision that inspires the mission to be performed while your values keep it all from dangerously veering off course.
Start with Purpose, Vision, Mission, and Values (PVMV) — your On-Purpose Statements — in whatever order they come to you. Your first step is the compilation and clarifying of your PVMV. Who cares if you start with your why? What matters is that you find yourself at the starting line of your adventure with a clarification of your why, where, how, and what’s important — your PVMV.
When you’re taking a long shot on a dream, knowing your PVMV improves your chances of success. The process can also reveal previously unanticipated flaws in your thinking or beliefs you can readily address. “Impossible” is often a pretense that’s like the Wizard of Oz — an old man (or belief) hidden behind a curtain. PVMV can pull back that curtain to reveal true possibilities.
A leap of faith is not a blind jump. Understand it as a calculated risk of anticipating the upside and downside alike. Charting this PVMV pathway from dream to vision equips you to step into this wilderness anticipating danger and temptation. Counter this by clarifying your values in advance so you’re prepared to respond to the inevitable dilemmas and accompanying “shortcuts” that shortchange your personal and character development. If at the end of your impossible dream, you detest the person you have become, all you’ve really done is sold your soul for external gain and internal misery.
Return now to the dream you recorded at the top of this post. Complete the assignment by writing down what comes to you without restraint. It will be a mishmash of PVMV that you can sort out later. Stuck? Set it aside and allow it to “cook” in your unconscious. When you return, you’re likely to have a flood of new ideas. Repeat this process until the dream becomes a vision with a PVMV-charted course that is true and right despite the Siren’s calls and dangers. You will be better prepared to navigate the “impossible.”
Be On-Purpose!
Kevin
