AtQ – What Are You Aiming For

Exploring Powerful Questions

In this week’s Talking Note, I explored the idea of Unity of spirit, an extreme vision of unity. This exploration was brought about by the ongoing challenge of division in various spheres of life – religion, politics, education, and relationships. A core idea at the center of this exploration is the idea that what we envision is the thing that we work towards. If our vision isn’t clear our action will not be clear. If our vision isn’t captivating our action may be distracted. If our vision isn’t solid, our action may be interrupted. The character of our vision can ultimately dictate our success in our pursuit.

This isn’t to say that our goals can’t change or adjust. It is just to honor the importance of vision. Dallas Willard’s V.I.M. model of change – which I briefly describe here – does this by setting Vision (the “V”) as the first and foundational aspect of any pursuit of change.

There are a few questions that can get us to articulate vision, this week’s question is one of them.

What Are You Aiming For?

If we want to stop or start a particular action, it is not enough to simply wish to stop or start. Our vision must articulate how life might be different if the stop or start happened, for the change to be inspired, willingly pursued, and ultimately fulfilled. Thinking of vision often brings to my mind the big and lofty goals of having a life characterized by peace, joy, gentleness, kindness, even love. But the centrality of a clear vision functions in more tactical pursuits as well.

This is how it might work out…