Don’t have a grand vision? Don’t make that a hinderance to ‘doing’
Implementation and execution of a half-as-good-a-plan is far better than an delays in moving forward while designing a perfect one
I run a non-profit and one that has a huge impact on the narratives that Indians carry of the modern Indian nation as well as the ancient Indian civilization they belong to.
Yesterday, i was writing OKRs for this year for the non-profit and that led me to think about — ‘what is the end outcome that i want to achieve with all this effort and activity’?
While i did get some answers…i will be honest that i am not entirely convinced about these outcomes. There is a vision but it is not clear. I simply have a sense of the gap that exists which i am simply filling. And doing that better and better each passing year.
And that’s the lesson from my life i wanted to share here with my readers.
Should the lack of long-term clarity or purpose hold us up from acting on small things?
While the structure and clarity of a long-term vision or definition of purpose are very important tools towards defining what you will do today, these should not hold you up from acting quick and fast on your inspiration towards some fleeting ideas of that vision.
Far too many times, i have seen teams fall into the trap of getting paralyzed in defining purpose or vision or values of our businesses before moving forward in defining our quarterly goals and small steps in improvements in the organisation’s culture and systems.
I am 100% for annual goals or even 3–5 year mission or a 10–12 year vision. Unfortunately, i often do not have any of these. The only thing i have is a sense of becoming better than what we are at the moment. And actions aligned with this process of continuous improvement is what drives me forward.
It has worked. It has worked for my business. It has worked for my non-profit.
While i agree that having a purpose and vision may have helped me be in a much better position than where i am with both my non-profit and my business, i would never let the lack of that come in the way of action.
We delay acting on our small inspirations, amidst all this mental circus. And Life keeps passing us by.
Action defines priorities
Life often knows better than our vision or desired outcome of our respective lives. The same applies for our work in our businesses/workplace and our social lives/community.
If at workplace, when you are trying to define a ver 1 of a system where none exists, acting fast and implementing a ver 0.5 is more important than trying to perfect the ver 1 that brings the risk of significant delay in taking action.
The most important thing is to act. Execution is everything. Honesty of intent and fast execution most often brings better benefits than perfection of strategy and a long-term vision/purpose.
When you act, Life has a way of opening new doors and windows — a vision and purpose of your life (or of your business/workplace; or your community/social life) which you could have never imagined could exist.
Similarly, at workplaces implementing a half-positive plan fast and executing it better will open new ideas on improving it. Infact, executing on some systems is the only way to build great systems.
Conclusion
Don’t delay your life in an analysis paralysis of wondering what benefit your social/community action might bring into society. Don’t delay your life with bringing a part of you to life wondering whether you will succeed or no. Don’t delay an implementation and execution of a half-as-good a plan in endlessly working out a perfect plan.
