On Navigating Failure and Building A Vision For The Future.

Have you ever felt like you don’t have a clear vision for your life? Or that you’re not sure what you’re “supposed to do“? Have you ever felt like you’re constantly missing the mark, as if you’re failing despite your best efforts?

You’re not alone.

In this post, I want to explore what it looks like to build a vision for your future, what it means to fail in the right direction, and why you might not be as far off as you think.

We’ll discuss the importance of having a clear vision for the 7 winnable areas of your life and how setting intentional goals can transform feelings of aimlessness into purposeful action.

Build A Vision

“If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” — Zig Ziglar

We all need to know the importance of having a end in mind, or goal, for the different areas of our life. If we don’t, we risk doing something worse than failing…

Drifting.

People like this stumble down the path of least resistance and over time find themself in places mentally and emotionally dry, barren, and dead. It’s the only outcome of not having vision and not taking action.

Let’s change that.

There are seven areas of your life that you can establish these “wins” for, and it can be a pretty fun exercise to go through. Keep in mind these may shift and change when you enter into new seasons of life. Here are the categories.

1. Faith: Spiritual disciplines, study, giving (not just financially).
2. Family: Relationship goals with your spouse, family, extended family.
3. Friends: Social connections and community.
4. Finances: Job/work and financial goals.
5. Fitness: Physical health and diet.
6. Fun: Hobbies, experiences, travel.
7. Future: 10-15 years ahead. Marriage? House? Etc.

Do your homework:

I want you to take out a note pad or create one on your phone and quickly write out 3-4 sentences for each of these. Try not to spend much time thinking about them the first time around. You want to get a “draft 1” of your vision down so you have something to react too.

Follow a format similar to this:

1. I will consider it a win to have family relationships that look like…
   • A
   • B
   • C
2. I will consider it a win to have personal finances that look like…
   • A
   • B
   • C

My suggestion is, after creating the first quick pass-through, take a short break and let your mind process what you’ve written. Come back to your notepad, and create a new list, and repeat the exercise. It’s important to not look at your previous list when you do this a second time around.

What you’re trying to find is what your heart and mind really want.

If you completed this exercise, congratulations. You are a part of the minority when it comes to having a vision for your future. Later on I plan to write about how to take this list to the next level of application, but for now, this is what you should take away:

You can fail.

Before, when the thought popped into your head that you are “missing the mark”, these were purely accusations against an undecided mind.

But that’s not you any more.

Now, you know where to focus, you know where to aim. And yes, this means that you can fail, but you will discover for yourself the thrill of chasing after something worthy of pursuit.

You now have internal evidence you are facing your limitations and weaknesses and you’re pursuing a positive ideal outcome for your life.

Now you can live out the second principle:

Fail In The Right Direction

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

– Nelson Mandela

You won’t be perfect and you will stumble from time to time. Heck, you might even have seasons of painful recourse because of the messes you’ve made before reading this.

But I can guarantee this:

If you stay on the path, if you face your life honestly, humbly, and aggressively, you will not only build a rich, fulfilling life, you will find meaning and joy on the path of transformation.

It’s better to fail in the right direction than it is to have no direction at all.

Things will shift and change. Past hang-ups, vices, and troubles will fade away in the background of the new person you’re becoming: someone with vision, purpose, and grit.

Keep your ideal “wins” in front of you.

And if you fall, WHEN you fall, be sure it’s towards attaining this vision.

You’re Not Far Off

It’s easy to feel discouraged when you’re striving for your goals and seem to fall short. However, the truth is, you may be closer to success than you realize. Let me illustrate this with a simple exercise.

Which of these words is closer to communicating “Cat”?

1. KAT
2. XAT

What’s you pick? It’s not a trick question.

Both are clearly spelled wrong, one is just more wrong.

I’ve definitely been more wrong for most of my life. And chances are you have to. The good news is, we can make steps to getting close to what is right, true, and good. In our relationships, our spiritual life, our work, there is a right way to be in them, a right way to steward them.

What I hope you can take away from reading this is that

1. You need to have a vision for your life.
2. Perfection is not required to pursue this vision.
3. You’re not as far off the mark as you might think.

It takes a commendable amount of humility to see what needs to change, and I applaud you if you see it.

Really think through the vision of your life.

Write it down. Make it plain. Live it out.