Vision: Three Non-negotiable Practices For Understanding the Present

You will fail at gaining a clear vision of the future if you fail to think well about what's happening right now. Because vision casting is not dreamy forward thinking. It is not pie-in-the-sky goals or a made-up fantasy world of could-be.

Vision casting must take stock in the past while also attending to the present.

Great visionaries live well in the immediate present. They are keenly aware and attuned to life as it happens around them. Mindfulness is a habit. Creative solutions to tomorrow's problems begin with being all in today. Right now.

For me, this involves three nonnegotiable practices.

White Space

Clutter tends to take over. It's chaos theory moved from mathematics to productivity. Time gets filled unless we are incredibly intentional about keeping it clear. The calendar is your best friend for doing this.

Journaling

I know. Not everyone is journal-er. Many a person has high intention and shelves of empty Moleskines. I get it.

"I'm not a writer."
"I'm not a journaler."

I recommend using some kind of tactile process like journaling for understanding the world as it is happening around you. No one has to see it. It doesn't even have to make sense to anyone but you. Use spiral notebook from the dollar store and write, draw, design, doodle, or architect the world as you see it right now. This is monumentally helpful when thinking about what is to come.

Analog Time

This is time for the brain to engage apart from a screen. Journaling can be digitalized. But I recommend pen and paper. Take a walk. Read a physical book. Paint on a canvas. Let your brain rest from the digital chaos that is the Internet. If you do this regularly (I say daily), focus and productive thinking will be a regular occurrence. A daily occurrence.

Going intentionally analog every day is a practice I can't recommend enough in 2018.

The only way to get clarity about the future is to understand the past and the present.

Understanding the past and the present takes time and intent.