Have Vision: Look Inward, Outward and Upward

Vision looks inward 

and becomes duty.

Vision looks outward 

and becomes aspiration. 

Vision looks upward 

and becomes faith.

- Stephen S. Wise

About 350 years ago, a shipload of travelers landed on the northeast coast of America. The first year, they established a town site. The next year, they elected a town government.

The third year, the town government planned to build a road five miles westward into the wilderness. In the fourth year, the people tried to impeach their town government because they thought it was a waste of public funds to build a road five miles westward into a wilderness. Who needed to go there anyway?

These were people who had the vision to see 3,000 miles across an ocean and overcome great hardships to get there. But in just a few years, they were not able to see even five miles out of town. They had lost their pioneering vision.

With a clear vision of what we can become, no ocean of difficulty is too great. Without it, we rarely move beyond our current boundaries.

- from Lee J. Colan

More great thoughts on having vision:

Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. - Ayn Rand

Where there is no vision the people perish. – Proverbs 29:18

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but has no vision. - Helen Keller

A vision without a task is but a dream. A task without a vision is drudgery. A vision and a task are the hope of the world. - Quote on a church wall in Sussex, England

Vision without action is a daydream. Action with without vision is a nightmare. - Japanese Proverb

The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps - we must step up the stairs. - Vance Havner

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens. - Carl Jung

Vision is the gift to see what others only dream.  - Byrd Baggett