A Note About Vision vs. Productivity


As a writer, and particularly an everyday blogger, one has to become clear about vision. Why are you writing? Who are you writing to? What difference do you hope to make in your writing? If your vision is clear, you will have a reason to write, publish, and continue posting, even when you are exhausted and don't feel up to the challenge. Your vision will keep you on track. It will illuminate your productivity. If you vision is weak, your stamina will sooner or later break down and your writing will look like an unfinished house.
In a recent podcast Michael Hyatt said: "People get stuck on the how. They don't seek how they are going to accomplish something so they throttle back on their vision to meet their shrinking expectation."  

This relates to more than just writing. There are bigger factors at play, deeper areas of life: Who are you? What do you do? What's your vision? How does your vision hamper or inspire your productivity?
Let's look at three lives of people who may be a lot like us:
Annie: Take a look at the life of Annie. Annie works in an office. Annie wants to be a creative. In high school Annie starred in the high school performance of Bye Bye Birdie. It was her senior performance. She receive many reviews. During college Annie put her skills to painting. She started with acrylic, eventually moving to oils. Although her paintings were quite good she never had the courage to show them publicly. Currently they are packed in a closet in her parent's house. She now works for a telecom company in an office park. The hours are long, the people she deals with are stressful. She finds it hard to foster creativity in the middle of a stuffy environment. "I'll paint at night, after I get off work," she told herself as she took the job. But now she feels her creativity squelched like a grapefruit in the bottom of the fridge drawer. Her nights are filled with streaming tv shows and surfing other friend's seemingly more exciting lives online. She longs to create and wonders when the change will happen?
What does she need? More productivity or more vision?
Justin: Or how about Justin? Justin lives a pretty full life. He manages accounts for a living (AKA: sales). He's good at what he does. He's been managing accounts for a while. In fact, he's worked for the same company for almost 17 years. He brings in more clients than almost any other sales representative in his company. He consistently out sells and our performs most of his competition. The people in his office discuss this frequently. He's known for his natural ability to care for people. He feels this is true and often connects with his clients on a deeper level than just making a quick buck. He feels there is more to his job than simply selling. Lately his life begins to feel, not empty, but forced. One of the joys in the middle of his sales career is his ability to train other sales reps to have the same kind of relational interactions that he has. Yet, deep down inside it's not enough for Justin. He longs to be a coach. He wants to train and coach guys to be effective husbands, fathers, and relational networkers in their fields. Yet no matter how high his level of productivity, he never quite captures the vision for making this dream a reality.  
Where does Justin need to focus his energy? What is he lacking?
Melinda: Lastly, let's look at Melinda. Melinda is a stay at home mom. She and her husband Tom have a couple of young kids. They are debating a third. She's intentional with their kids. She cares for the home but finds it confining, the constant regularity, the demands. She enjoys providing the protection and attention her kids need at this stage in their life. On the side of mothering and caring for the home she's a blogger. She writes a regular column and has a community of friends, other women, who connect with her world through her writing. She's a part of a ladies Bible study during the week. Occasionally she teaches and counsels other women to read the Bible. But lately, the monotony of the days seem to be getting to her. They seem to drag on, one after another, without a break. There is no recess; there is only the day in and day out maintenance mode of the house and all the comes with it: dishes, laundry, school schedules, kids among kids, hurts feelings, and selfish hearts. It's not that she wants to escape her reality, she simply wants to make sense of it, to find meaning in the middle of it.
Does Melinda need more productivity? Does she need a better schedule? 
Each of these stories have a problem. But the problem is not a productivity problem. They don't need to simply work harder, longer, be more skilled at planning a schedule. No, the problem is a vision problem. We tend to have a difficult time seeing the vision for our lives in the everyday, regular life's circumstances. What happens is that our stamina lasts only as long as our vision is clear. Our emotions and productivity are meant to cling to God in the middle of negotiating our everyday identity and vision.
The point is this: God is the one who shapes our vision. Out of God's vision for our lives we become a people of productivity.
So who has God made you to be? What is he asking you to do? Where is he asking you to live and work? What is He asking you to do there? How will you find the mission God has for your life?
"(When writing) your vision needs to be so huge, so big that it scares and compels even you and calls other people into it."  Michael Hyatt

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