Inspired by The Principles and Power of Vision — Dr. Myles Munroe
Some people are acutely aware that they aren’t fulfilling their potential. They dread Mondays and live for the weekends because they hate their work. Their whole lives seem centered around the only two days they are free from the trapped feeling they experience at work.
If you ask people Why do you exist? Most cannot tell you. They can’t explain their purpose. They have no vision for their lives.
"You would rather find purpose than a job or career. Purpose is the reason you are on the planet, at this particular time in history" — Chadwick Boseman
Purpose influences the way you conduct your entire life, such as what you spend your time and money on, and what your priorities are. Without purpose, without vision, you have no values to guide the living.
The vision God has put in your heart is “a piece of eternity” that he gave you to deliver on the earth during your lifetime.
It is this piece of eternity that makes you uncomfortable or dissatisfied with your present life because you are not yet manifesting your purpose. The fact that you were created to complete it means that you have everything you need to accomplish it. God always gives us the ability to do whatever He calls us to do.
The problem is that we have been damaged by our educational systems, which conditional us that we are here to work in a place we hate, pay our bills, and retired and died. We have been trained and brainwashed by our societies to dream small, think small, expect small, and not try to do anything too big. And the issue right now it’s that you still suck at looking for a job that is not for you. You have to break away from traditions, you have to reprogram your mind.
You were born to achieve something significant, and you were destined to make a difference in your generation.
A lack of purpose and unfulfilled potential is an epidemic in our world.
Education in itself doesn’t guarantee anything; it is your gift that is the key to your success. The gift is not something we learn. It is something God gave us.
No matter how big the world is, there’s a place for you in it when you discover your gift.
Manifest your gift!
The 12 Principles of Vision by Dr. Myles Munroe
Dr. Myles Munroe, through these principles, gives you the key that will unlock your life’s purpose and give you the strength to empower yourself to become successful.
1. Be directed by a Clear Vision
If you don’t have a clear purpose, you are going to be distracted by every other business in the world.
When you know and understand what you were born to accomplish, that is purpose. When you can see it in your mind by faith and begin to imagine it, that is vision. This vision must be clear to you because, otherwise, you will have nothing to aim at, and you will achieve nothing.
Remember that a vision is not the same thing as a goal, such as building a house, buying a sports car, or having a million dollars in the bank. Having a purpose and vision has to do with your life’s existence.
Your true work is what you were born to do.
Your job is what you do only UNTIL you are ready to fulfill your vision. When God gives you a vision and confirms it, nothing can stop it. If He tells you to build, start, invest, create, or manufacture something, then it will bother you deep inside; you will become depressed until you do it.
Some people just want to own a house. Yet once they get their house, then what? They want to buy a nicer car. Fine. Then what? They want children. Yet once they have children, then what? There has to be something more to life than the things we accumulate.
Your vision should be something that lives on after you’re gone, something that has greater lasting power than possessions.
What is it that you want in life? What things in your life are distracting you from the real “business” of your life?
2. Know your Potential
You will never be successful until you truly UNDERSTAND your potential. Whatever you were born to do, you are equipped to do. God will never call you to an assignment without giving you the provision for accomplishing it. If you understand this principle, no one can stop you from fulfilling of your vision.
Potential is who you really are.
What you are able to accomplish has nothing to do with you who your parents were. It has nothing to do with your past or with physical factors such as your race or appearance. Instead, it has to do with the power working WITHIN you.
You must understand that God will never call you to do something that he hasn’t already given you the ability to do.
You should not allow any others to judge your potential. Others may not be able to see your purpose, and your abilities are determined by your purpose. Again, whatever God is causing you to dream is the revelation of your ability.
You may not have the background to do what you are going to do. People may not believe you can do it, yet what does it matter what they think? Just keep doing what God tells you to do.
The ability to accomplish your vision is manifested when you say YES to your dream. When you discover your dream, you will also discover your ability. God gave us the gift of IMAGINATION to keep us from focusing only on our present conditions.
3. Develop a Concrete Plan
If you don’t have a plan, God doesn’t have anything specific to direct you in. God will direct your steps once you make a concrete plan to move toward what you desire.
It’s not what you need that is important. Starting with what you have makes your vision successful because God will take care of the rest.
Certain people can’t handle your plan while you’re making it. That is why you can’t tell to everyone. Sometimes, you have to write it in private and keep it secret for a time. Why? Because some people will try to talk you out of your plan, saying you can’t do that… If you listen to them in no time, you will throw your plan away and end up an average person, like there are. People who are going nowhere like to take others with them. You can’t tell your plan to everyone right away.
4. Possess the Passion
If you want to go all the way to your dream, you cannot sit back and expect everything to be easy. You MUST have a purpose that produces passion.
You will never be successful until you are ANGRY about not doing what you know you should be doing. If you are happy about what you are doing, you are going to end up settling right there.
If you are going to be what you see in your mind if you are going to go after what’s in your heart, believe me, there will be resistance. The only way to OVERCOME that resistance is to have passion for your vision.
Persistence will keep you moving forward, yet you need passion to feed your persistence.
If you can stop what you are doing and still be happy, then you are not passionate about it. If you can be discouraged by someone telling you NO, the bank refusing you money, then you don’t have passion.
Passion meets every problem.
Wherever there is no vision, there is often fighting, gossiping, murmuring, and complaining. Vision preoccupied people to the point that they have no time to gossip or get angry.
5. Develop the Faith
Never let what your eyes see determine what your heart believes. Life is so full of depressing things that you need to learn to live by the vision and see with the eyes of faith. Sometimes the environments we live in are not the best for fostering vision. What people say to us is not always encouraging and can be very discouraging.
You will become everything you constantly declare about yourself.
A vision is an idea that is so powerful it can live beyond the grave. Your own vision should outlive you.
Faith in vision is crucial because the way you see things determines how you think and act and, therefore, whether or not your vision will become a reality.
Faith sees problems as opportunities.
6. Understand the Process
God has a plan for each of our lives. However, He gave us a purpose but doesn’t explain the full process. He leads us step-by-step, day-by-day through tribulations, trials, and character-building opportunities as he moved us toward our dreams.
Why does God lead us in this way? Because he doesn’t want us only to win, he wants us to win with style! God doesn’t just hand you this vision. You have qualified for it.
At the time when we receive our vision, we are not yet ready for them.
Sometimes we become impatient with God’s process because we can see our destinations, and we want to arrive there tomorrow. However, God says no, I have a route that will get you there, even though this route may seem long this is not designed to keep us from our destinations, it is designed to prepare us for them: Develop our character and produce responsibility in us.
Do you really believe that God sees and knows everything? If you do, then you have to TRUST that your hardship is part of his PERFECT plan for you.
God is working on us, preparing us for our purpose through the process.
Why is it taking so long? Why do I have to go through all this? That attitude of complaint and lack of faith is exactly what God is trying to work out of you.
God places us in jobs that will prepare us for our life’s work. Remember that a job is a preoccupation on the way to true occupation.
7. Set the Priorities
If you want to fulfill your dream, you must fix your eyes on it and not get caught up in anything that won’t take you there.
There may be some “good” people in your life who are ”bad” for you because they’re distracting you from going where you want to go.
You must come to the point where you FOCUS on what is necessary to fulfill your dream. If you don’t do that, you won’t make it to the end of your vision.
Even your friends can be dangerous when they distract you from your dream. We have to realize that our enemy will try to use those nearest to us to divert us from the right path.
If you want to be successful, you must set priorities for yourself in relation to your vision. The kind of life you’re going to have in the future by the decisions you are making TODAY.
What things do you need to eliminate from your life in order to focus on your dream?
Understanding priority will help you accomplish your dream because priority is the key to effective decision-making.
8. Recognize People’s influence
You must be careful whom you allow to influence you because your vision will be either encouraged or destroyed by others. There are two kinds of people in this world: those who are with you and those who are against you. Your environment determines your MIND-SET, and your mindset determines your future.
People of vision have found that the minute they decide to fulfill their dreams, all their enemies seem to wake up. People will become angry when you step out and start to do something that they have never done. Opposition often proves you are doing something significant with your life.
People who change the world have declared independence from other people’s expectations. Sometimes we need to pull away from the influence of those we love if we’re going to follow our God-given visions. Many people want you to be what they want you to be, not what you were born to be, and often they end up limiting you.
Don’t be afraid to disassociate yourself from people who aren’t right for you. Spend major time with positive influence and minor time with negative influence.
For those of you who are dating and becoming excited about your relationships, please take this to heart: When you have a goal for your life, make sure that the person you are interested in is also interested in your goals.
You must protect your mental environment.
9. Employ the Provision
People often stop dreaming about what they really WANT to do in life because they know they have few resources with which to do it. Yet God knows that our provisions are never equal to our visions at the moment we receive them. He knows that often our dreams are big, and our bank account is small.
We like to see the provisions before we start, but faith doesn’t work that way. When we take action, then God manifests the provision. Your provision is usually hidden until you act on your vision.
We think PROSPERITY means excess, and that is why we worry when we don’t already have money in the bank to fund our visions. Too much wealth can cause oppression and even depression. Some people have so many diamonds that they put bars on their windows to protect themselves against theft. They worry every night that someone might break in and take their $20.000 watch, which they rarely wear anyway.
As Dr. Myles Munroe said, that approach to wealth is foolishness because the riches are a burden rather than a blessing. You don’t have to own extravagant things just because you are wealthy. You’d be better off buying a $20.000 watch and enjoying your life. That way, if someone takes it, you can just buy another one. All you need to know is the time. You don’t have to worry about who is keeping it for you.
True prosperity means to be free of worry and fear and reflects a state of contentedness that everything necessary is being taken care of.
Now, If you pursue the wrong assignment, you’re going to need things you can’t get because the provision isn’t there unless the vision is yours. Sometimes, people make demands on God that He can’t supply because He can’t give us what doesn’t belong to us.
Again, knowing God’s will for your life is the key to your prosperity.
10. Use Persistence
Even though God gave the vision, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be accessible to obtain. You must be prepared for the CHALLENGES, for they are coming.
Courage means, “ I am afraid, but I am still moving.” Fear is a positive thing when it gives birth to courage.
Many people lose because they quit when Life says NO the first time, but persistent people win. They never take no for an answer when it comes to their visions.
It’s going to get tough, but you have what it takes to win because God has promised that He will stay with you and work out the steps of your plan.
11. Be Patient
People who have long patience will always win. However, you cannot rush a vision. It is given by God, and He will carry it out in His own time.
When you are patient in the fulfillment of your vision, you are able to be calm in the midst of uncertainty.
For example, you can be at peace when everyone else is worrying about being laid off. No one can really “lay off” a Child of God. All they can do is set you up for the next position that will further prepare you for the fulfillment of your vision.
Vision makes you patient.
12. Stay Connected to the Source of Vision
If you are going to be successful in your vision, you must have a daily, dynamic personal prayer life with God.
Remember that you were born to consult God to find out His purpose for your life so that you can discover your vision.
God is not only the Author of your vision but also your continuing support as you progress toward its fulfillment.
Sometimes, you will feel… “Am I ever going to make it?”That’s a good time you have finished praying; you will be saying, “I am ready to go again”.
Allow God to strengthen you.
Since prayer is where you receive the ability to continue the fight, it is crucial for you to find times during the day when you can go to God. When people attack your dream, go to God. Don't try to explain and give an answer to everything because you can’t explain anything to critics.
In the pursuit of your vision…you will grow emotionally and spiritually.
Amandine S'iita
Inspirational Writer