Vision vs Dreams: Why Understanding The Difference is The Only Way to Build The Life You Want

Having a vision and being connected to my values has become one of the most important and impactful things in my life.

And honestly, I feel the urgency of it more now than I ever have.

Life is so brief.

We do not have unlimited time to keep postponing postponing the things we care most deeply about.

I’m not saying blow up your life, but I am saying, are you actually using your life energy for the life you know you want to be living?

When I eventually lie down at the end of my life to pass, I want to know in every cell of my body that I went for it.

The things I truly cared about, I fully participated, I love, I created, I contributed.

I went all in.

And I want to share about vision because no one ever told me about vision really until I was in my mid-30s, I would say.

And I remember hearing it in a couple of different places and someone I really respected was like, you must clarify your vision.

And so I did.

But I didn’t like sit down one day and figure it out, right?

Life kept showing to me through my experiences, looking back, that the threads and the qualities were there.

So I just had to put them together.

And that’s what I’m inviting you to do as well.

So, when I was little, some of my happiest moments were simply staring out the window at nature as we drove through Southern California and the different places that we lived and traveled to.

I would watch the trees and the sky and the mountains and the sea and just soak it in.

I love being outside.

I loved laying on the ground looking up at the sky and the trees and being in the garden.

And I later discovered how much I love music.

I always cared deeply about people and I could empathically feel them and how I could support them.

And of course later, food, health, meditation, Ayurveda, relationships, you know, supporting people’s development.

Like, those were the things that I really was drawn to and cared about.

And being in nature and wild beautiful places, connecting around beautiful food.

Like, looking back, I see that all of those threads, all of those moments, were my clues, right?

Of like, what makes me come alive?

What makes me happy and draws me toward it?

What are my values?

What’s important to me?

Right?

And I’ve had so many moments, right, where I had a lot of experiences where I had the house, the relationship, the money, the things I thought were supposed to make me happy, but the way that I felt wasn’t fulfilled.

I noticed being in extraordinarily beautiful homes in very, I would say, exclusive places in the world.

And I absolutely love beauty, architecture, you know, craftsmanship, quality things, and nature and beautiful environments.

But in those moments I saw that fulfillment and happiness, contentment, isn’t the marble floors or the bank account or whatever these spaces offer that people are so deeply going for.

They don’t create the state.

So what I did notice were the qualities in those places that I was drawn to.

Nature.

Beauty.

The feeling of spaciousness.

Order.

Light.

Support.

A feeling of ease and depth and subtleness.

And in a way it was like a temple or like a sacred space, but it was the environment and the space it created for life.

And those qualities are really the most important thing about that.

It informed the qualities and the values that I have in creating spaces for people to thrive, right?

And also I want to say, this is not about designing the perfect environment.

Because of course India and different travels that I’ve had have given me a lot of perspective around this.

Because obviously we can create beautiful intentional spaces that support life, and I do believe that’s incredibly important.

But also we want to cultivate like a depth of stability and okayness to not just depend on being in the perfect environment.

The deeper work for me is cultivating something within myself that I carry into whatever environment life puts me in, right?

And that is capacity.

So when I’m talking about vision, I’m not talking about another goal.

I’m not really talking about goals.

Dreams show us possibilities.

Vision give those possibilities direction and more of a shape and a form.

Embodiment is how we go towards it and start to live it in reality and work towards it in reality.

But a vision evolves because you evolve, right?

Life keeps informing you.

You have experiences that teach you things.

You fail.

You succeed.

You discover something, like I did, that I thought would give me happiness and success doesn’t actually nourish you.

And something you might have ignored or didn’t even have in your awareness actually matters so much.

And vision is an alive thing because you’re in an alive relationship with life, right?

And it basically makes this distinction between rigid ambition and goals or a vision that’s more expansive, inclusive, and connected to the way life works.

And this really resonates with me.

It’s not about conquering something.

It’s about something you continuously come into a deeper relationship with.

So as an example, an underlying principle in my vision is whatever it is that I’m doing in work, in life, how deeply that the way that I am touches another human life is how rich my life is.

And that is part of my vision.

It’s not about what I accomplish as much as it it’s about what becomes possible in other people’s lives because of my influence.

What opens up for them?

What kind of life does that create?

What kind of possibility does that create?

So again, I’m just inviting you to kind of explore.

What have you felt most alive with in your life?

When have you felt most alive?

Not, what should my vision be?

Maybe you’re already super in touch with your vision, but start with your life.

When have you felt most alive?

What experiences have made you feel deeply, have really connected to you, have moved you and sparked you in a deep way?

What qualities were present in those moments?

What have you achieved, acquired, that you thought would fulfill you but did not?

What was the deeper thing that you were attempting to achieve by acquiring those things?

What did it mean?

What did you think it would bring you?

What keeps showing up throughout your life that you continuously care about?

What is that theme or thread that runs through your life?

And if you already know what matters to you in every area of your life, what is interfering with your ability to organize your life around it right now?

So if you already know what your vision is and what really matters to you, what is it that is interfering with your ability to organize your life around it right now?

So I would just invite you again, connect to your vision.

Connect to your life.

Connect to what’s mattered to you.

What’s moved you.

What sparks you.

What excites you.

What you’re deeply pulled towards.

Pay attention.

Write it down.

And what I recommend is writing it down in all the different areas.

Your health.

Your relationships.

Work.

Your contribution.

And then little by little, have the courage and build the capacity to organize your life around what you deeply care about.

Love and blessings.