Want Clarity? One Quick Way to Close The Vision Gap

Reader,

This week, I spoke to a room filled with accomplished leaders from higher education, healthcare, and leadership development. After I presented The Vision Gap, many stayed to talk about the same question:

“I’m having trouble seeing what’s next.”

For their organizations. For their careers. For themselves.

These people weren't lacking ambition, talent, tenacity, or training.

They were lacking clarity.

We get so busy doing what today demands—checking off the never-ending to-dos, solving problems, meeting deadlines—that without realizing it, we start building tomorrow from the circumstances of today.

The default of today becomes the Groundhog Day of tomorrow.

Wake up. Do. Solve. Deliver. Repeat.

You become extraordinarily good at recreating a life you're no longer sure you want.

You’re not lacking clarity. You’re trying to imagine your future from inside the limits of your present.

There’s a difference.

That's The Vision Gap—the space between what you can see from where you stand today and what might be possible if you allowed yourself to see farther.

I watched 60 Minutes last week, and they featured Kevin Hart, one of the most successful and highest-paid comedians in the world. Kevin could have spent his career selling out arenas, making movies, and becoming an even more successful comedian. An extraordinary career.

Instead of asking, How do I get better at what I already do? Kevin asked a bigger question:

What could I build from everything I already have?

That question expanded his world beyond performing into producing, media, ownership, partnerships, and investing. He explored a much bigger picture of what his talent—his intellectual capital—could become. The media company he built, HartBeat, has reached a reported valuation of $650 million.

His comedy success was notable, but he simply refused to make it his finish line.

I think there’s something in that for all of us.

Getting better at what you’re already doing isn’t the same as imagining what else you could do.

Here’s the trap: We use today’s evidence to determine tomorrow’s possibility.

I don't have the experience.

I don't have the time.

I've never done that before.

Your circumstances are real, but there’s a difference between acknowledging your circumstances and allowing them to determine the outer limits of your future.

How do we break the pattern? Instead of immediately asking: What should I do next?

Try asking: What haven’t I considered?

What would make my current idea of success look small?

Your mind will want to, but don't start listing all the reasons it can't happen. Or you'll look for an immediate solution, answer, next step.

I do this too. My brain immediately starts making the evidence list.

Here’s why that won’t work.

Here’s what I don’t have.

Here’s what I don’t know.

I want certainty. I’m impatient. I want to move straight to the answer.

In doing that, I can kill a possibility before I’ve given myself enough time to explore it.

Someone asked me recently what I do when I catch myself being the loudest voice telling me what I can't do. Here's the answer I wished I'd given her: I give possibility a head start on practicality.

I don't need to know if the idea will work. I don't need to know exactly how I'll do it. I give myself permission to stay with What if? a little longer.

Clarity doesn't always come from thinking harder about the life you're already living.

Sometimes clarity comes from giving yourself permission to imagine what you haven't considered.

This week, give possibility a head start on practicality.

You don't need all of the answers. You just need enough space to see beyond the answer you already have.

Don't let today's circumstances become tomorrow's finish line.

Make your future bigger—and your present gets better.