In yesterday’s Life Palette blog on how to live a “High Impact Life” I talked about how you set about developing a clear life vision statement. “It’s time to get clear on your life’s vision and move toward fulfilling your God-given potential as His masterpiece and living a high impact life.” And that statement must include your passion; in fact your passion should shape your life’s vision statement.
Narrow The Focus Of Your Passion
Yesterday’s exercise was to help you write out your life vision statement to begin writing your passion. No limit on the amount of words or paragraphs or pages. Just let it flow and write. Now to move one step closer to a lifetime vision statement and ultimately a high impact life as the masterpiece God created you to be living your full potential you must narrow the focus of your passion; clarify. To clarify your passion, consider doing these exercises today:
- Spend some time in prayer and ask God, who has created you as His masterpiece with a purpose and destiny, to give you clarity. (Have a way to record your thoughts quickly, He may flood you with ideas and thoughts) Consider making a meeting time with God through reading His Word (the Bible) and prayer a daily habit, this will give you the foundation for ongoing passion. (You shape your daily habits and soon they will begin to shape you!)
- Get focus and clarity by simply allowing yourself time to dream and imagine. So many people feel they are too busy to dream, that it’s not productive. Wrong! Wrong!! Wrong!!! Without dream time you will never get clear vision and focus of your passion. This is one of the most valuable things you can do. Especially when combined with the habit of daily time with God. ( I like to make it a part of my time with God – after all He is The Creator – what better place to get my dreams than from the one who sees and speaks dreams into existence?!)
- Find other passionate people to hang out with. Their passion does not even to be in the same ball park as your passion and vision. I find that people who are passionate about what they are doing in life rub off. I love to be around them. I recently talked with a guy whose passion is restoring old pianos and giving them a “new life”. (His words not mine). I play piano and appreciated his vision and passion. However, I have no desire whatsoever to be in the business of restoring old pianos. But, his passion rubbed off on me. I found that just being with someone of passion about what they were doing made me more passionate about what I was doing. Find passionate people and hang out with them.
Passion is the fuel for your life vision. Don’t just write a statement so you can point to it and say you have one, rather let the passion that God has put within you write your vision statement. The discipline comes in narrowing and focusing that passion to have a clear and concise life vision statement. George Barna says this about vision: “For vision to become effective it must be simple enough to be remembered and specific enough to give direction.”
Leaders:
This blog is written to individuals and helping them live their full potential as God’s masterpiece. However, I have spent my entire life as a leader and have learned that these principles apply to leadership as well. In fact I have learned the most about them and their value as I apply them to my organization and the team I lead. While I am writing this blog on a personal level (that each person own the responsibility of leading themselves first and foremost) this is applicable on a leadership level. A team or organization, whose vision is not fueled by passion, focused passion, will not be a high impact organization. And leaders, it all begins with us. Our passion and our focus! That is why organizations change leaders and not the people, teams change coaches and not the team, churches change pastors and not the congregation. The vision of the organization is fueled by the passion of the leader and his or her vision!
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