Clear Vision

As we age, our eyes tend to lose their flexibility, making it more difficult to see up close.  This presents an interesting challenge for those of us who already have trouble seeing far away objects.  Now, we can’t see far and we can’t see near either!  In fact, it seems that the more correction I receive to make my distance vision sharp, the worse my close-up vision gets.  I recently discussed this with my eye doctor when I was in for my annual check-up.  Eye care professionals solve this problem using a variety of techniques.  For those who wear glasses, bi-focals can help them see at various distances.  But for those of us who wear contacts or get corrective surgery, the solution is different.  It’s called mono-vision.  One eye is corrected for sharp distance viewing, and other eye is corrected for close-up vision.  At first, everything seems blurry.  But, after a while, our amazing human mind blends the information from both eyes so that you can see clearly at any distance.

There is a life lesson here.  As we go along in life, sometimes our vision becomes so focused on the stress and challenges of today that our distance vision is clouded and we can see only dimly into the future.  When this happens, we become near-sighted (or short-sighted), bogged down in the present with little hope for the future.  Our future vision is insufficient to allow us to set powerful goals or identify objectives.  As a result we get stuck—unable to progress, improve, or achieve.

The other extreme is also common.  Too many of us become far-sighted.  We see clearly what we want to accomplish in the future, but we are unable to clearly see the consistent daily strategies that we need to implement in the present in order to make our future vision a reality.  We dream, we wish, and we hope.  But, we are unable to create and follow a plan to get there.  Whether we become near-sighted or far-sighted in our outlook, both of these situations can block our effectiveness and impede our progress.

True vision, whether in business or our personal lives, is the ability to see clearly both the future and the present, to not only set worthwhile goals, but to organize our everyday activities so that our goals become reality.  Just like mono-vision, the solution is to keep both the future and present in clear view.

Success Tip: Always keep one eye on the future, clearly defining your goals, objectives, and direction.  But, at the same time, keep the other eye on the present—always making sure that our daily activities lead toward our future vision.