I make a living by creating business dreams, visions, and pictures and then realizing the opportunities by executing as a team. I enjoy my work. Many believe that the process is very discipline, and in many ways it is. There are a wide range of techniques and tools that one uses in and on the job to determine what things might look like, analyze and evaluate the potential alternatives, and then guide the preliminary picture into reality. As I reflect there are several observations that come into focus.
First, dreams remain fuzzy unless someone other than you can understand and paint their own version of the destination. There are no dreams in isolation; even personal goals involve others.
Second, no matter how much analysis one does there are always new pieces of data, different relationship interactions, and things that you could never anticipate that will influence what your dream will look like tomorrow.
Third, even a perfect dream may not be “perfect” in God’s eye. The fact that your view of the future may be morally, ethically, and economically correct does not mean that it is the perfect or even the best. The easiest way to say this is that “mortals make elaborate plans, but God has the last word.” (Proverbs 16.1)
The challenge with all of this comes in execution. Hoes does one know if your plans are complete? Are there indicators that will let you know when it is time to start? Can you resolve competing ideals for your plan; personal values, individual goals, ethically priorities, economic requirements, or economic targets? What happens when a spanner hits the fan?
My experience continually reminds me of two observations that may help anyone serious about winning the game.
Motives and process are always as or more important than tactical wins. It will never seem that way, but in almost all situations the ends will not justify the means.
Letting go, trusting that God will intercede when and where he needs to and then flexibly pushing forward is the key to winning.
God is always in control.
