Hold the vision loosely, but hold it.
Holding a vision, a dream, a goal is important. It gives us a North Star, a place that we know we are working towards.
But there is such a thing as holding a vision too tightly, with a narrow-minded conception.
A narrow-minded conception of a “vision” is as follows:
A dream or goal that one (person, organization) attempts to achieve
Something that is conceptualized primarily from within, with no baked in expectation of emergence or shifts to occur
A beacon of light at the end of a tunnel that dictates present decisionmaking
These are all well and true in some ways, but it’s time we start having a more expansive view of vision.
Because what a vision really is is an invitation to dance with the forces of intention and surrender, in fluid measure.
Intention is the soil from which a vision grows. It is impossible to have any sort of vision without intention.
But surrender? Surrender is not something we often talk about when we talk about visions, dreams, or goals.
And that underemphasis on the role of surrender in bringing visions to life is what causes many of the visions that we hold today to look much more like attachments than commitments.
An attachment to a vision is rooted in the desire to assert fear-based control over the vision.
A commitment to a vision is a promise to intentionally steward the emergence of that vision, trusting that it may not look exactly as you’d expected it to.
When regarding visions, of course it would be wonderful if we had total control. If we could just conceptualize a vision and make it actualize in front of our own very eyes on command.
But life doesn’t work that way.
Too much control can collapse the dream. Too much attachment to one specific outcome suffocates any opportunities for emergence and expansion of the original vision. It leaves the soil your vision sits in parched, and any growth that emerges liable to brittleness and easy breakdown. This white-knuckled grip on the vision easily gives way to exhaustion and disappointment if reality isn’t matching the attachment to the vision that you’re holding.
Too much surrender, on the other hand, is not a good thing either. Being too nonchalant about the vision, with no real grasp on it, can lead to endless drifting, lack of direction, and seeing your your dreams dissolving into a horizon far off in the distance.
That liminal space between intention and surrender is where this mantra blooms:
Hold the vision loosely, but hold it.
Holding a vision means you have clarity of direction. You aren’t married to one exact image of what you might see at the end of this vision’s path, but rather you hold a strong sense of conviction about the direction the path is taking. Holding a vision means the way that you carry the vision has a shape, a structure. You are able to develop an internal framework or values system that helps you make decisions as you walk this path, to stay in accordance with the vision without needing total control over it. (We will dive much deeper into values articulation and how it supports lucid visioning, so subscribe here to get lucid letters in your inbox.)
Holding a vision loosely means you have a willingness to adapt as new information emerges. It means that you are open to new pathways branching off of original pathways, and you’re ready to grant yourself permission to explore those pathways, knowing they very well could all lead back to your original vision, but that they could also lead you somewhere you’d never have been able to imagine yourself. Holding it loosely means that you haven’t placed a binary view of success on this vision (Did I realize it? / Did I not?) but rather that you’ve begun to view success more holistically, making room for expansion of perspective, curiosity, and transformation to be a part of your KPIs. Holding it loosely means having the compassion to give yourself grace when things go differently than you’d expected, and the wisdom to know that those perceived divergences all contain rich lessons.
Holding the vision loosely is a core tenet of lucid living, because at its core, lucid living is all about being simultaneously inside the vision (committed to it) and observing it from above (able to adapt). When you have lucidity around a vision, you have a consciousness of your relationship to the vision itself. You understand that the vision is not here for you to project all of your worthiness wounds onto, to serve as some external barometer of how “good” you are.
The vision is here to call you to rise, to transform you. And if you’ve got a really strong vision, it will invite others to rise and be transformed as well.
So, if you’ve got a vision that you’re holding, the challenge is this: Can you hold it loosely?
We’ll explore what that really looks like, and how to know if you’re gripping too tight or too loosely, in the future. For now, scroll down to receive some journaling prompts around holding a vision loosely, and subscribe to receive lucid letters that support your visioning directly in your inbox.
Journaling Prompts:
What’s one vision you are currently holding? Is it an attachment or commitment?
If there’s a vision you are gripping too tightly, what would it feel like to loosen your grip without letting go?
What vision have you abandoned because it didn’t unfold exactly as you had imagined? What would happen if you picked it up with more gentle hands?
How do you typically measure success for your visions? What would a more holistic view of success look like?
