Significant Outcomes in the Face of Adversity

# When You Understand Your Vision…

Posted by Dave Cooke on Jul 16, 2025 in Accomplishment, Celebration, Change, Inspiration, Uncategorized, Vision | 1 comment

Inspired transformational change involves living in passionate commitment to our vision.

Life’s most inspiring choices and what leads to the most compelling results is when we realize that accomplishment is success by addition.

Success by addition.

I repeated this because I would like for you to think about that for a moment before reading on.

People talk about realizing a goal, celebrating an accomplishment, or getting to an outcome all the time. Most of the conversations involve giving something up to get there. In reality, this may be true. In that same reality, we might be challenged to remove something we actually enjoy having in our life — easy, convenient, fun, satisfying, a habit. Extricating something we enjoy in our life to get to an outcome we desire for our life is a lot to ask, sometimes very difficult to accomplish, and often, not very inspiring.

How can we possibly find change a positive when the first step is a negative action — eliminating something we are attached to?

For example, take food and weight loss — the world’s most popular goal. Whether it is a diet or a lifestyle choice or a healthy eating commitment, it doesn’t matter. When you make a decision to eat better, the first thing you discover is you have to give something up — cheeseburgers, beef, french fries, ice cream ,desert. For me, it would be pizza! It is hard to make a choice to give up something you love in the name of better health or weight loss. Unless…

Unless you frame it differently. Closely examine why you are making a commitment to better health. Envision what better health means to you — how you look, how you feel, what you can accomplish, the energy you have. Now, decide if that outcome is something you truly desire. Focus on becoming more emotionally connected to how you feel and look when you realize that outcome? How does this success make you feel? Are the emotions you feel about this vision of accomplishment worth the effort and the commitment?

Take a mental picture of these emotions and internalize the visual image you created from that visioning exercise. Put this “picture” in front of you wherever you go. That image is you living and experiencing your vision of better health. When you carry it in front of you, you are living in that commitment to your vision. The next time a “cheeseburger” shows up on your radar, you clearly know it is not part of your vision so you skip it. You are now loving that chicken salad more because it supports your vision of who you are and where you are going. Did you give up cheeseburgers? No. You added chicken salads because they better support your vision of health in your life. And, you can still have that “cheeseburger” for it does not change who you are in relation to your commitment. You will not make that “cheeseburger” choice because it does not support your vision of accomplishment in your life. In the clarity of you vision and commitment you consistently make decisions that supports the direction you have defined in your life. And, you have not given anything up to get there — you are simply making different, inspired choices.

Too many of us get caught up in the impact of taking things out of our life instead of celebrating what we bring into our lives. Making a conscious, impactful change in our lives is a cause for celebration. It is not a time to reflect on what we are giving up to get there. Rather, it is a time to celebrate what we have discovered and introduced in our lives that we know will make a difference and contribute to our vision of accomplishment.

Change your perspective, focus on transformational change by addition, and live your vision every single day!

One Response to “When You Understand Your Vision…”

1. Chris Lee says:
   July 17, 2025 at 4:12 pm

   I seem to be having more success with this latest health initiative though I don’t have the typical poundage or body fat goal that I’ve set for myself in the past. I am also not restricting any food items so it’s not like I’m doing a lot of denying myself. I haven’t been eating most of the stuff that’s been unhealthful for me in the past but I think it’s more because I keep feeling better as I eat cleaner.

   Previous efforts would always stall when I got hurt. For me, exercise drives dietary changes. This time, I’ve incorporated more activities (added swimming & biking) so I can just switch to a different activity if I get a nagging injury. That’s been helpful in this effort.

   And while I have been very goal oriented historically, this time I feel the changes could be more long term because I’m not fighting against constraints. I guess I do actually have a short term goal that is helping though. I will be doing my first triathlon soon and I’m thinking I will want to do more of them and more running events after that.

   reply

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