Last week I connected with one of my Visionaries in Alabama, and his business has been massively impacted by the Coronavirus. He has had to shift to a much leaner operation as his revenue has been jeopardized.
He could have felt like a failure.
He could have chosen to take a reactive stance (“This is all happening to me.”), but instead he decided to maintain his long-term focus and keep making things happen. He confided that this has been an extremely challenging time, but that he continuously reminds himself that this is just a speed bump in his path, not the end of the road.
One of my favorite quotes from him is,
“this is my reality, not my finality.”
The reality is that the bread and butter of his business has waned significantly, but that’s not his finality. He made the decision to rally his team together, and get creative about alternative revenue sources – most of which would never have been explored had he not been intentional about being honest with his team and involving them in the process.
They’re also taking this slow-down in normal operations as an opportunity to work on all those projects they’ve been wanting to tackle but haven’t because day-to-day responsibilities were getting the way. Now they’re being proactive about completing those projects so when the dust settles on all this they’ll be well-positioned and ready for the next chapter of their success. Every day during this period, they create a daily Vision for what success looks like that day – keeping them on track.
What is long-term focus?
Long-term focus refers to staying connected to objectives that will take a significant amount of time to achieve. There might be a time horizon of several years or more, and may take a lot of planning and money. Long-term focus is easier with Visioning, as you are working towards a clear and defined future state, rather than simply reacting to short-term challenges and opportunities. Long-term focus can also help guide decision-making, and help you or your team say “no” more easily. Long-term focus is also sometimes referred to as "strategic focus" or "long-term perspective".
A non-linear path is natural
While our Vision is not a moving target, the path to get there is ever-changing. That gives us the flexibility to remain nimble and pivot as needed, while staying true to where we’re headed long-term.
As we were talking, this Visionary said that this experience showed him that not only can the path to our Vision change, the vehicle we use to get there can change too. It might change slightly or it might change significantly, but it’s so important to remember that recalculating our course does not mean we’re going off the rails. It means we are truly using our Vision as a compass. And just like a GPS recalculates when it hits an obstacle or a traffic jam, we can do the same and still ultimately get where we want to go.
The key is that we keep our Vision in our sights, because if our path is always changing and our destination is always changing, too, it becomes really difficult to navigate! Have you ever entered a destination into Google maps, only to change your mind over and over again in the span of seconds, and find that the app freezes and can’t keep up?
Our minds often operate the same way. With so many unknowns right now, your long-term Vision is there for you as a constant in a sea of changing variables.
Having clarity around your Vision isn’t a silver bullet or a magic pill. It doesn’t make everything okay. But what it does is help you acknowledge that life is a series of waves, and as they say in San Diego, while you cannot make them stop, you can learn to surf.