By | Michael Pietrzak | www.success.com
The only thing I know for certain is that I’m a writer. The problem with that, for someone who burns money like kindling, is that I can’t just write and still satisfy that part of me who likes sleeping indoors.
I’ve also spent the last, hmm… 15 years devouring personal development books, blogs and videos, and annoying friends about stoicism and neuro-linguistic programming. Yet after all that time reading about abundance, I still can’t see a way to turn my love of self-help into a lucrative vocation.
If I leave these diversions in the realm of dabbling, the world loses my nascent talent (too soon to say, potential genius?) because I have blurry vision.
That’s me, but let’s talk about you. Without a vision for your life, you will never realize your highest potential. Do I sound like my mom? Good. She really whipped me into shape, so you’re in for a lively read.
Related: How to Create a Master Plan for Your Life
Most of us have had fuzzy glimpses of our brightest futures, but few give it enough thought to see the picture clearly. Let’s fix that, shall we?
The 97,000-Piece Jigsaw Puzzle
At the start, our mushy vision is like a gratuitously difficult puzzle. You don’t know how to begin. Even if someone left you the box top as a guide, how does each piece fit together? A love of writing, self-help and sarcasm. Oh, sure, it should be so easy to make this work.
In this stage, you can give up and watch TV, or you can pick up two puzzle pieces and see how they fit. In my case, I can glimpse the end goal: a house in Brazil where I get out of bed to surf, then write for a few hours, build a business in the afternoon, and party with my new and weird expat friends at night.
I see the pieces: the love of my craft, a wild imagination, a mortgage, a coming wedding and kids. But I can’t seem to envision the road to Oz. How do I, or you, move forward? By picking up one piece at a time and trying to connect it with another in a way that fits perfectly. Then you add a third.
