If you ever want to influence your future, it all starts with vision.

It has been said we don’t see life as it is, we actually see it as we are. When we take a moment to look back over the issues we have encountered in life, it is very evident that most of the problems could have been avoided if we looked differently. It boils down to how much value we place on what we see.

In a society seemingly in love with the concept of vision, especially as it regards to business, we have to understand what vision is, where it comes from and how we can develop it further.

First, let’s find out what vision IS NOT:

* Vision is not just a dream: This means vision is not simply an object you can cut out and place on a board and poof, it appears. No, vision goes deeper, to the point of a viable goal with a date attached.

* Vision is not always a community effort: Often we forego our personal vision because we can’t get a committee to agree with it. Vision sometimes means we have to start out alone.

* Vision is not an easy pass: Now that you have developed the vision, the real work begins. Vision expands the second you commit to work it.

The power of vision is released primarily through our environment. As we live, work and play in certain areas, it serves to strengthen or weaken vision based on the environment. After a while our enviornment directs our experiences. The funny thing about experience is it depends on our perception. How we see is based heavily on where we came from. Those experiences later form a cement I like to call our belief system. We live and breathe these beliefs because it has become a way of life.

If you ever want to influence your future, it all starts with vision. Until we address our imagination we will never be able to innovate. Without vision, we are forced into a life with little direction and fulfillment. Vision is the defining moment to the dream we currently hold.

See you at the TOP!

* Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.