The Scary Concept of Long Term Vision

For many of us, long term vision can be a scary concept. This is understandable, because it usually means that we’re having to put faith in something we’re doing now not showing a return until much later.

This could be our businesses; our blogs; or our budding relationship with a new lover.

It’s scary, because while we believe in our hearts that everything will work out, often we get impatient for results that we can see now.

We want our business to be profitable right away; we want our blogs to have hundreds of comments, subscribers and social shares; and we want that new love to be the one, and to fall in love with us so we can start living our lives together.

The problem is, very rarely is something a home run out of the gate. Instead, it takes time to truly get to where the real gold is.

It takes time to build a brand. It takes time to build an audience. It takes time to earn trust.

And it takes bravery to allow the luxury of that time. Something that’s hard to do in this instant result economy, where you’re considered a failure if you don’t have Number X within Timeframe Y.

But here’s the thing – today’s big successes all failed to start with, in one way or another. Household names now were nothing but hopes and dreams at one point, and they didn’t suffer because of non-instant success.

Instead, they succeeded because they saw the bigger picture, and believed the path to get there was worth the tough times they might endure. And they were right.

You can be too. You just have to embrace the concept.

image: Steinar Johnsen