LIFE
Your Vision Poster
Many years ago, I had a friend who was going through his residency programme on his road to qualifying as a medical doctor in America. After four years of undergraduate study, four years of medical school, one year of residency down and two ahead of him, he was tired, and I heard how tired he was every time I was on the phone with him or when I visited him.
Then one day I went to visit him, and in his bedroom, above his reading desk, was a huge poster of a BMW 5 Series model sedan. It was his motivation, he said. Every time he got tired and didn’t want to study, or didn’t think that he could take another day of the gruelling schedule of a resident, he would look at the poster and it gave him the boost of energy he needed to carry on. He really wanted that car, but if he didn’t successfully complete his residency programme, the only way he could get that car would be to steal it (not the best way). Of course, he did not choose to become a doctor because he wanted to be able to afford a BMW, at least I don’t think so. But he got to a point where it became difficult and he needed something physical to anchor his desire to become a medical doctor.
Over 20 years later, I still use this idea of having a vision poster in my life and I have found it useful in encouraging young people who either want to give up on or are not putting in their best effort into what they should be doing to get to the next stage in their lives. I don’t always have a huge poster on my wall, sometimes, it is clippings of pictures that I keep in a journal or in my wallet and carry around with me. I tell the young people that I share this idea with, to create their vision posters with their motivating photo(s) and written steps for how they plan achieve their vision. Vision posters can be our vision for the next year, two years, five years, or however long we like to plan our lives and businesses. But we must connect the work that needs to be done to achieve the vision, and do it!
My friend did get his BMW car after he completed his residency programme and I am sure that he has created a few more vision posters as his life has progressed.
The photo of Harvard University in this post is one of the images on my current vision poster. It represents one of my long term visions, which is to be able to send my son to the best schools, debt-free for me and him. It’s a long road, requires hard work, and personal sacrifice, but it will all be worth it in the end.
