A man is travelling down a dusty road, mid-west of America.
Stopping at a small roadside “gasoline station”, he sees a native American, sitting at the kerbside carving a piece of wood.
Stretching his legs as a break from the long drive, he wanders over to the Red Indian, and watches, casually.
On closer inspection he sees that the artisan is in fact carving traditional Red Indian chieftain head and shoulder busts from the wood, and has built up quite a collection, to sell to passers-by.
As he watches the Indian at work, he sees that each figure is individually carved straight from one single piece of wood, and he marvels that the craftsman is able to do this without drawing out the design before starting to make a cut.
He asks, “How do you do that? When you start out with a single block of wood, how do you know where to cut?”
The Red Indian craftsman replies, “I just look at the wood, and anything that’s not Indian I cut away”.
You see…
The craftsman doesn’t see a block of wood. He sees, in his mind’s eye, the finished figurine. He sees it as clear as day. All he then needs to do is cut away anything that’s not part of that image.
And, so it is with where we want to get to in life.
As you look to the year ahead, consider this: it’s not necessarily about adding new achievements, or gathering / adding new “stuff”. Instead, more often than not, it’s a case of cutting away everything that is blocking the achievement of the “true Vision”, whether that’s business or personal… or a combination of both.
What is it about your life, your business, that doesn’t immediately fit with your Vision of what you want your life / business to be like? What do you immediately need to cut away?