This is a story about three views of vision,
Which one to choose is your decision.
The first is to plummet and that is not good.
But wouldn’t people change that if they could?
It includes a lot of mourning, crying and sadness,
There are no easy solutions to get out of this madness.
The second is to survive, just stay afloat.
Who cares how many leaks are in this boat?
Predictable irrationality is to be expected,
But excuses for mediocrity must be rejected.
The third is to drive with a life of meaning.
This isn’t all eat, drink and laugh.
But with genuine vision, quite the opposite.
A meaningful life can make one tired.
The driving vision is to live a life that matters.
Take action to help others, not just idle talk.
“Do it or don’t do it, there is no trying,” Yoda says with the Force.
Plunge, survive or thrive in your vision – decide your course.
Each day begins with an indication of the state of a person’s vision. Whether in thought or vocal form, the following expressions set the tone for the day: “Do I have to get out of bed?”, “I got up on the wrong side of the bed!” or “It’s a new day!” The expression that begins the morning usually governs the day.
Seemingly harmless expressions are a mindset that is part of a bigger picture. Everyone has a vision of life. Acknowledging it is one thing, but ignoring it becomes a bigger problem when you don’t realize the power of aimless wandering.
The nosedive is full of “never good enough” ideas, “who am I to think I could ever fill in the blank“, or general negative self-talk. People who repeat these phrases or some variation of each probably think they have no vision, but this is a big part of the tailspin.
The lack of direction is like flying with vertigo. The pilot has no sense of up, down, or the direction the plane is heading. Not following any course in life, at best, ends up like a plane running out of fuel, useless. The worst case scenario is an accident that didn’t have to happen.
Survival can include phrases like “don’t worry, be happy,” “go with the flow,” or “you can’t have your cake and eat it too.” The tricky part about survivors is that sometimes this mentality is appropriate. The problem is embracing mediocrity without ever leaving your comfort zone.
Taking time off to recuperate could be considered surviving. The reason for recovery has a lot to do with surviving or thriving. A lot of people retire just to take it easy. Without purpose, retirees become sedentary and listless. The shame is that the many gifts and talents of these people to help others in a different capacity go to waste.
Thriving visionaries take time to recover knowing that renewed energy is essential to doing meaningful things. They are in a sweet spot that is the right mix of being excited about the task at hand with the ability to perform well doing it. The Yerkes-Dodson Law suggests that performance and arousal are directly related. Understanding how the combination is constantly being optimized is driving.
An example of optimizing to thrive according to the Yerkes-Dodson Law is a game of basketball until the final shot to win or lose. The person who dives doesn’t even want to be on the court for fear of making a mistake. The survivor is on the court, but does not want to touch the ball. The prosperous visionary player wants the ball to take the shot and is annoyed if that is not the called play.
Can everyone prosper all the time as a visionary superhero? Of course not. Does an occasional nosedive or survival time become part of a person’s life? Certainly. It takes hard work, concentration, and even suffering to maximize the time in the sweet spot of prosperity. Research on the Yerkes-Dodson Law identifies the relationship between performance and arousal. Each person has to determine where to live the majority of a visionary life: dive, survive, or thrive.